Recipe Review: Mujadara

Source: Aarti Sequeira

I have been looking forward to making a dish called mujadara for quite some time. Mujadara has some of the my favorite ingredients: onions, brown lentils, and rice all of which are also frugal pantry staples! But I was always reluctant until I watched someone else make the recipe on tv. I was concerned about the cooking the lentils and rice together and the resulting texture. I finally made Aarti's version because she simmered the lentils separately first before finishing them with the rice.

The rice was simmered for 30 minutes and sat on the stove for 5 minutes without the heat. I followed the directions even though that is a little longer than we normally cook our basmati. The rice was just slightly softer than I would have preferred but was not a big deal. Next time, I will be cooking it for about 5 minutes less.

Do not skimp on the onions! The recipe calls for setting aside about half of the caramelized onions and then simmering the rice and lentils with the remaining onions. At the end, you serve the rice with the reserved caramelized onions. This was my favorite part! The sweet, caramelized flavor went very nicely with the slight spiciness (I went heavy on the cayenne) of the rice and lentils.

 
I used yellow onions because they were exceptionally nice. I thought they browned up just as well as red onions would have.

The spices were very simple and probably spices most of us already have in our cupboards. I loved the cinnamon, especially the scent it gave the dish. Do not worry, the cinnamon scent and flavor was understated and delightful.

I saw the recipe served 6 but I was not convinced with just one cup of lentils and 3/4 cup of basmati rice. This made a huge amount of food! Z. and I have frozen rice before and the reheated leftovers tasted just fine so I made sure to freeze a large portion for those evenings when I just cannot manage to cook. Enjoy!