Hey guys, welcome to Dede’s Mediterranean Kitchen. Today, I’m going to be making a vegetarian dish called mujaddara.

Mujaddara is made out of lentils and rice and onions. It’s a very healthy dish. It has a lot of onions in it, it has protein from the lentils and it’s very easy to make. You can serve it with pita bread, you can serve it with a cucumber and tomato, and mint salad with some olive oil and lemon juice. You’re going to love it, it’s easy to make and if you want this recipe, you can go to www.dedemed.com.

Now, here’s what you’re going to need. I have one cup of brown lentils. Make sure you use the brown lentils, not the orange lentils, because the orange ones tend to fall apart and the brown ones keep their shape. You’re going to need three quarter cups of white long grain rice. You can also brown rice but just make sure it’s the long grain rice. Here, I have two cups of chopped onions, you can use yellow onions or white onions, but you do need two cups. I have two tablespoons of cumin and I have one tablespoon of salt. You’re also going to need water and a pot. I’ll show you how to do it.

So, I put two tablespoons of olive oil on medium heat in this pot. I’m going to add the onions. Now, you want to sauté the onions until they are a brown color, until they caramelized and that usually takes about five to six minutes. So give them a little stir and then let it cook for about five to six minutes. Now, you can see the onions have caramelized and they are nice brown color. They smell fabulous. So this, we’re going to add the three quarter cups of long grain rice and the cup of lentils. We’re going to add water to cover them to the brim. You give it a little stir just like that. And so, it’s probably going to be about four to five cups of water. It’s going to sizzle when I add the first cup. You give it a little stir. We’re going to add the salt.

Now, the cumin, we’re going to add that last. We’re going to let this cook, covered for about 30 to 45 minutes. You’re going to want to give it a stir at 30 minutes and make sure the lentils are being cooked and then at 30 minutes, that’s when we’re going to add the cumin. So let’s add the salt just like that, give it a stir. You want to keep it on medium heat, medium to low, not low-low, but just medium to low heat, cover it and then let it cook.

Now, you can see the lentils and the rice are being combined. It’s been about 30 minutes, now, I’m going to add my cumin. You want to mix that up really well and then let it cook for another 10 to 15 minutes or until you taste that the lentils are completely cooked through. Now, if you see that your mixture is a little bit dry, you can add some water, about a half of cup of water. Let’s give it a good mix just like that. Remember, you keep the heat low, medium low, cover it and let it cook for another 10 minutes.

Now, I cooked my mujaddara for another 15 minutes. What I’m going to do now is pour it out into a plate. Now, mujaddara is not traditionally served warm. It’s actually served lukewarm or at room temperature, it’s not a hot dish. So you want to put it in the plate, spread it out like that, and then what you can do now, some people like to top it with some caramelized onions just you can chop up or slice up some onions, caramelize them in some butter for about five minutes in a pan, and then you can top this when this has cooled with the onions. Some people like to top it with parsley, some people like to serve it with yogurt, some people like to serve it with a salad, you can also get a nice pita, put in the pita, cut up some tomatoes, some cucumbers, roll it up and you’ll have a great sandwich.

It’s a great vegetarian dish. It’s really warm right now. I just like to top it with some parsley just like that, serve it with some tomatoes and you’re good to go. You have a great hearty meal. If you need this recipe or any of my other recipes, go to www.dedemed.com. Email me if you have questions and join me again for Dede’s Mediterranean Kitchen.