Mujaddara

Our friend Sarah came over for lunch today and I made us Mujaddara. Living in the Detroit area there are many great Middle Eastern restaurants. Over the years I've tried many different dishes - and have found I like most Lebanese food I've tried and it's generally pretty healthy, but I have not really cooked it at home. I decided to try this one today and made a few adjustments to the original recipe, so here's my version:

Mujaddara
4 servings

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup long grain brown rice
• 1 cup french green lentils
• 4 cups yellow onions cut into quarter slices
• 4 TB extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 tsp ground cumin
• 3 cloves garlic minced
• fine sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Put brown rice and 1 1/2 cups water in small pot, bring to a boil, then turn to simmer for 35-40 minutes
2. Rinse lentils and add to medium pot with 4 cups water. Simmer lentils over very low heat uncovered until soft but with a sight bite to them (20-30 minutes). When cooked, cover and let water absorb any leftover water.
3. While rice and lentils are cooking, chop onions. Heat olive oil in a heavy skillet, add onions and reduce heat to medium-low. Stir every few minutes until they are deeply browned and carmelized. I did mine on a low heat and it took about 35 minutes. Do not rush this step!
4. When onions are browned, remove half of them to drain on a paper towel to crisp. Add cumin into the rest of the onions in the pan, add in garlic and saute 2 minutes on low.
5. Drain lentils and transfer to the pan with the onions. Season with salt and pepper, mix and cook 2 minutes.
6. Mix rice into the lentils and onions, cook for another couple minutes to make sure rice is heated through if it has been sitting.
7. Serve on 4 plates and top with the crispy carmelized onions.

This makes 4 good size servings. I calculated the nutritional value to be 436 calories, 14g fat, 60 carbs, 16g fiber, .5g sugars, 16g protein per serving.