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Mujadara - Lentils and Rice with Deeply Fried Onions

Three ingredients, and the third one makes the dish: 400 g of onions fried until they are almost black. Their bitterness is the counterweight to the mild lentils.

Mujadara - Lentils and Rice with Deeply Fried Onions

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. Simmer the lentils in plenty of water for 20 minutes until almost tender. Drain and keep the cooking water.
  2. Slice the onions into fine half-rings. Fry them in the olive oil over medium heat for 25 to 30 minutes, stirring only occasionally.
  3. They pass through golden, then dark brown, and end up almost black. Lift out two thirds and drain on kitchen paper - they crisp as they cool.
  4. Add the cumin to the remaining third in the pan, then the lentils and the washed rice.
  5. Top up with 500 ml of the lentil water, salt, bring to the boil and steam covered over the lowest heat for 15 minutes.
  6. Turn off the heat, slide a cloth under the lid and let it stand for ten minutes.
  7. Fluff with a fork and pile the cooled onions on top. Cold yoghurt and a salad go well with it.

Warum die Zwiebeln fast verbrennen dürfen

In a long fry, the Maillard reaction and caramelisation run side by side. At the end, bitter compounds form that balance the onion's own sugar. Stopping at golden gives you sweet onions - and a mujadara with nothing to push against.

What is actually in it? Up-Food calculates over 30 nutrients for this recipe from the real ingredient amounts – based on verified USDA data, not estimates.

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