Mujadarrah

Good With: Chilled salads, grilled chicken dishes, as a side for a cold sandwich
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 40 minutes
Cost: 37¢ per serving
Adapted from a recipe on AllRecipes.com

Oh, lentils. Every hardcore vegan/vegetarian seems to be obsessed with these tiny little legumes – and it makes sense! In every little ounce of boiled lentils lay three full grams of protein, two grams of fiber, and only 32 calories. It’s a tiny nutritional bombshell that’s ready to absorb and compliment whichever flavors you have on hand. This dish incorporates one of my favorite things – caramelized onions – and doesn’t disappoint.

Ingredients

Makes 6+ servings

6 tablespoons olive oil
1 large white onion
1 1/3 cups uncooked green lentils
3/4 cup uncooked long-grain brown rice
Salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup plain yogurt

Preparation Instructions

1. Prepare the onion by slicing it into rings if it’s small, or diced if it’s large. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Stir in the onions, and cook about 10 minutes, until translucent and starting to brown. Remove from heat, and set aside.

2. Put lentils in a medium sized pot and cover slightly with water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer about 15 minutes.

3. Add rice and enough water to cover both the rice and lentils together. Season with salt and pepper. Cover and simmer 15 to 20 minutes, until rice and lentils are tender.

4. Take half of your onions and mix them into the rice & lentil mixture. Plate with extra onions on top, and serve with yogurt and a touch of hot sauce (we used Tapatio – it’s Conor’s favorite!).

Yaaaaaaargh!: Onions are definitely the focal point of this dish, so feel free to experiment! We used one of the largest white onions I’ve ever seen in my life, but after consumption, I feel like a yellow onion would work just as well – particularly a Vidalia. In retrospect, we should have diced the onion before cooking it, sheerly because the rings we cut were gigantic, and we had to remove them after cooking and chop them into smaller pieces. Don’t worry about the rice cooking for such a short amount of time, it turns out just fine. Feel free to use sour cream, if you don’t have plain yogurt. Adding a shake or two of your favorite hot sauce is definitely a good idea!