Lentils & Rice with Fried Onions (Mujadarrah)

Deborah Madison's "The New Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone" available for purchase here: http://amzn.to/1FN9kgB

Lentils are a fantastic complement to any diet - vegan, vegetarian, or carnivorous. This simple rice dish is quick to make and certain to warm any belly. It's fantastic leftovers with a poached egg on top!

Make plenty of onions if you know you like them. Perfect with a side dish of vegetables or a salad with a sharp dressing. 

Ingredients: 
6 tablespoons of olive oil
1 very large onion, sliced into rounds 1/4 inch thick
1.25 cups green or brown lentils, sorted, rinsed, and soaked for 1 hour
1 teaspoon sea salt
3/4 cup white or brown long-grain rice
freshly milled pepper

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring frequently, until it's a rich, dark brown, about 12 minutes. Meanwhile, put the lentils in a saucepan with 4 cups water and the salt. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 15 minutes*. Add the rice, plenty of pepper, and if needed, additional water to cover. Cover and cook over low heat until the rice is done, about 15 minutes. Stir in half the onions, then cover and let stand off the heat for 5 minutes. Spoon the lentil-rice mixture onto plates or a platter and cover with the remaining onions. 

*Here, I used canned lentils. So, I brought 3.5 cups of water to a simmer, then added 1 can of lentils. I brought that back to a strong simmer, then added the rice plus another half cup of water to cover everything. I then continued with the recipe, letting the lentils and rice cook for 15 minutes. 

I'm a certified Integrative Nutrition Health Coach and I help people eat more vegetables through my cooking companion videos. My goal is to make you feel more comfortable cooking, so I show you not only how a recipe works and looks, but I give techniques and suggestions for making it easy on beginner cooks. 

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