Mujaddara (Arabic: مجدرة mujadarah, with alternative spellings in English majadra, mejadra, moujadara, mudardara, and megadarra) consists of cooked lentils together with groats, generally rice, and garnished with sautéed onions.
I decided to make Mujaddara (or however you spell it). Ken has been making this ever since he had it at a Palestinian restaurant in Jerusalem. He made it for me several years ago, and I found it almost as addicting as his macaroni and cheese. All things considered, it is a much healthier dish. I hunted around on the web, and couldn’t find a recipe that sounded as good as the recipe that he makes, so finally, I broke down and asked him how he makes his. He said, “Look in our cookbook.”
Ken and I have our own hand-written cookbook at home. Ken had received it as a “blank” cookbook from his ex-girlfriend, Julie, when he was in grad school, shortly before we met as a “parting gift.” I thank her for providing a place for us to document our food love 🙂 It is our “recipe box,” full of recipes we have invented, but also full of recipes from friends and relatives, dead and alive. It is also stuffed full of recipes we have used and liked from the Internet. I found his recipe, hand-written, on a numbered page, and it was definitely his recipe, different from anything I found out on the Internets.
Time: 20 minutes active, 40 minutes cook-time, 1 hour total
Servings: 6
Ingredients:
1 c. green or brown lentils
1/4 c. olive oil
2 large diced onions
1 c. rice (or other grain, like bulgur wheat)
2 large cloves of garlic, minced
1.5 t cumin
.5 t allspice
.25 t cayenne pepper (or more to taste)
1 large bay leaf
1 cinnamon stick
2 c broth or water
salt to taste
1-2 additional onions for frying to garnish
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees farenheit.
Rinse and clean lentils. Place in saucepan with 2 cups of water. Bring to a boil, turn down, and let simmer for about 10 minutes. Lentils will not be soft at this point. Turn off.
In a heavy oven-proof pan, or dutch oven, heat the oil on medium-high. Add onions and cook until they have carmelized to a deep golden-brown. Depending on the onions, this can take from 15 to 30 minutes. Stir them frequently to make sure they don’t burn. Sprinkle with a pinch of kosher salt.
Add garlic, stirring in to the onions for only about 15 seconds. Add grains, and sauté for a couple of minutes, stir in spices, add lentils and broth or water. Add salt and pepper to taste, plus bay leaf and cinnamon stick. Bring to a boil, and place dutch oven, uncovered into preheated oven. Set timer for 20 minutes.
In the meanwhile:
Slice 1-2 onions thinly. Add about 1 inch of frying oil (canola, avocado, or peanut) in a heavy pan. Heat oil up over medium heat, test temperature by dropping onions into oil. When it is hot enough, the onion will bubble to top quickly, and will fry with time to a golden color. Remove and dry on paper towel.
Serving Suggestion:
Dish up rice and lentils, and garnish with fried onions. Serve with a lightly dressed salad. We made a lovely herb yoghurt sauce that was super easy to make: a small container of greek yoghurt plus a couple of tablespoons of Trader Joe’s Zhoug Sauce. Harissa is also an excellent accompaniment for this meal.
