Mujadara

My grandma, who will be turning 96 next month, is one spunky lady. She managed to live alone into her nineties- still puttering around in her yard daily- but eventually it was decided she would be safer living with my mom. For the first three years, her house sat empty. But when my brother and sister-in-law found out they were having another child, it only made sense for them to move into the significantly bigger house. But that meant 50-plus years of stuff had to be sorted through, claimed, donated and sold first.

I was able to nab some special treasures, including a set of various sized glass bowls (very Smitten Kitchen-ish), the gorgeous teal serving dish from this post, and a set of glass canisters with cork stoppers, among other items. Once I emptied the canisters of their ancient contents and soaked off the 70's-era labels, I had some fun new vessels to store some of my bulk grains and legumes. Now, I am very anti-clutter when it comes to my kitchen counters. By the stove is my olive oil decanter, and salt and pepper. That's it. You will find no toaster, coffee pot, knife set, not even my Kitchen Aid mixer on display. But I decided I could spare a little space for my grandma's canisters.


One day, inspired by seeing brown rice and green lentils side by side, I decided to google those ingredients to see what might come up, and discovered endless versions of Mujadara, a simple Middle Eastern dish of rice or sometimes bulgur, lentils and caramelized onions. I was intrigued and filed it away for another day. When I went to make it, I began looking for which recipe I wanted to use. My search ended when I saw Molly at Orangette had a version of it from several years back.

Despite that fact, there is so little to it, this recipe is very full of flavor, thanks to the caramelized onions. Most versions I saw had them piled on top; in Molly's they are incorporated throughout. I used long grain brown rice instead of basmati, but next time, I may go with the quicker cooking bulgur. With the caramelizing of the onions and the time to cook the rice, this dish takes a while. From pulling out the onions and the cutting board to plating it, it was over 2 hours, but little of that is hands on time and it is seriously good stuff. And what an inexpensive and high-protein vegetarian meal, not to mention one made of pantry staples.

Molly suggests pairing it with a green salad, but I've been serving everything with a salad lately so I opted for roasted carrots instead. Sage chose to eat his Mujardara plain, while Beckett and I had ours with greek yogurt and chopped parsley. I had the leftovers with a squeeze of lemon, which was probably my favorite.

Mujardara (moo-jha-dra)
adapted slightly from Orangette
This is said to serve 4-6, but for us, it was more like 3 dinner sized servings.

1/4 cup olive oil
1 1/2 large yellow onions, chopped
1 cup green or brown lentils, picked over
1/2 cup uncooked brown rice
2 cups water
1 tsp kosher salt, plus extra for serving

to serve: greek yogurt or sour cream and parsley or lemon wedges (optional)

In a large skillet or Dutch oven, heat the oil of medium. Add onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until deeply caramelized and even burnt in spots. This will take about 45 minutes to an hour.

While onions are cooking, place lentils in a medium saucepan, cover with an inch of water. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes. Drain lentils and set aside.

Once the onions are caramelized to a rich shade of amber, stir in rice. Add cooked lentils, water and salt. Mix well and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat and continue cooking at a slow simmer. Once all the water is absorbed and rice is tender, it is done. For me, this took about 40 minutes.

If desired, top with a dollop of yogurt/sour cream and sprinkle with chopped parsley, or serve with lemon wedges.