|
|
|
VEGAN FEAST SUBSCRIBERS' COOKING AND RECIPE FORUM>
Lentils, Lebanese way
Brenda W.
167 posts
Jun 19, 2007
2:31 PM
|
Hi everybody,
I went to our favorite Lebanese restaurant last week, and had the MOST fabulous lentil dish. They spelled it Mjadara ... coming home and searching the web about this dish I also found it spelled Mujadara.
While I love lentils, I've never had them in any form or fashion that made me want to stand up and shout. THIS dish did!! It had generous amounts of olive oil and some acidic component ... I had guessed apple cider vinegar.
I asked the folks at the restaurant how it was made, and they said theirs has olive oil, onions, and a little lemon in it. They said the secret is sauteing the onions in the olive oil till the onions are carmelized.
Searching the web, I see this is the one standard component to all the recipes I found .... carmelize a large amount of onions in a generous amount of olive oil.
From there, the recipes really diverged. Some had cumin, some had bulgur, some had rice. My friend at work from Sudan said Mujadara "always" has rice. Some had lemon, others didn't.
Some recipes have you cooking the lentils in broth, and then adding the olive oil/carmelized onion mixture once the lentils were cooked, others have you adding the water and lentils to the onion mixture once the onions are carmelized.
But, google "Mujadara", find your favorite looking one, and give it a try. It is FABULOUS!!
|
Bryanna
Owner/Moderator
2127 posts
Jun 19, 2007
4:16 PM
|
Brenda, I just had this in a little Palestinian restaurant in Vancouver about a week and a half ago! It was made with rice and it was delicious! Loved the onions!
|
luv2bead
32 posts
Jun 20, 2007
12:26 AM
|
i found this about five or six years ago while searching for some vegan african dishes. it is one of my favorite ways to cook up lentils. we love it hear. and like you bryanna, i love all the onions.
jacqueline
|
Debbie
1359 posts
Jun 20, 2007
8:49 AM
|
Brenda,
I made this dish after I came back from Portland, Oregon where I bought this cookbook: Classic Vegetarian Cooking From Middle East and North Africa
It was a funny story how I ended up cooking this lentil dish. While I was vacationing in Portland, my husband who stayed home, learned to cook. He wanted to cook a lentil dish and the recipe asked for 2 cups of lentil. He read that you are supposed to soak lentils first so he soaked 2 cups of dry lentil in a bowl overnight. When he woke up in the morning he was so surprised that the lentils multiplied to be about 4 cups. So he only used 2 cups for his dish and told me to plan for somekind of lentil dish when I arrived home since 'I have a LOT of lentils', he said.
So I searched for a recipe in this cookbook and found this dish, Mjadara. It was really good.
Meanwhile, hubby did cook some delicious dishes. One dish he cooked is called Black Beans Picadillo. It was delicious.
----------
Debbie
Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all. ~ Harriet Van Horne
|
Debbie
1360 posts
Jun 20, 2007
9:02 AM
|
BTW, while I was in Portland, I also visited this very good restaurant:
Nicholas Restaurant A Lebanese and Middle Eastern restaurant.
It's a family restaurant that is very crowded. We went early for lunch while they just opened. There were at least 20 people waiting outside for seats when we were about to finish eating. Incredible!
There is a picture of mjadra in their menu in this site.
----------
Debbie
Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all. ~ Harriet Van Horne
|
Brenda W.
168 posts
Jun 20, 2007
9:52 AM
|
Debbie, what a hoot hearing how you first made this dish!! Hopefully neither you or your hubby got tired of lentils after that first venture of his!!
|
Debbie
1361 posts
Jun 20, 2007
11:02 AM
|
Brenda,
No I am not tired of lentils. In fact, I am going to make this mujadarra tonight, with lots of onions. The idea of caramelizing onions are going to be great to put them on top and in this dish.
I am running out of easy idea to make dinner. Two rooms in our house went through a remodeling, a repainting phase, last weekend. I could not cook elaborate stuff. I packed all my cookbooks in a box. So I am looking for easy dishes idea for tonight.
So, I'll use the Internet's recipe this time. I am going to make Lebanese Salad and Mujadarra for tonight's dinner.
----------
Debbie
Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all. ~ Harriet Van Horne
|
Brenda W.
169 posts
Jun 20, 2007
12:29 PM
|
Oh dear ... remodelling!! I wish I could beam an all prepared dinner over to you!!
|
Debbie
1362 posts
Jun 21, 2007
9:17 AM
|
Hi Brenda,
I made this mujaddara last night. It was delicious! My husband said he likes it a LOT! It's truly YUMMY! We ate it with Lebanese salad.
Thanks for telling me about caramelizing the onions. This is really the trick and adds sweetness to the dish and the umami? :-) I didn't do this earlier when I made it last time.
I didn't have time to soak the lentil and I cooked the basmati brown rice earlier. I also forgot to put in lemon juice. But my husband said he'll like it without lemon juice. I think a bit lemon juice should be better.
Here is what I did:
Mujaddara
1 cup dry brown lentil
1 cup uncooked brown basmati rice
5 medium red onions
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp. ground all spice
Fresh Lemon juice, optional
Cook brown basmati rice with 2 cups water for 45 minutes.
Simmer dry lentils in 3 cups water for 25 minutes or until tender. Drain the water.
When rice and lentils are ready, slice 3 onions in quarters, then slice them thinly. Saute the onions in 2 tablespoons olive oil for a long time, 10 - 15 minutes in medium low heat until onions are caramelized, reduced, brown, and soft.
Add cooked lentils and brown rice and mix them all together with the onions. Add salt and all spice. Mix until combined and heated through. Sprinkle with lemon juice, if desire.
For the topping: Slice the remaining 2 onions, whole, in thin slices to make thin rings. In a separate frying pan, saute the onion rings in 1 tablespoon olive oil until onions are caramelized, reduced, brown, and soft.
Serve on a platter and topped with caramelized onion rings.
----------
Debbie
Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all. ~ Harriet Van Horne
|
Brenda W.
172 posts
Jun 22, 2007
9:49 AM
|
Thanks for the recipe Debbie ... that gives me a place to start. Did you really use 1 tsp allspice? (sounds like alot of that spice).
I think I'm going to try some cumin in it too.
|
Debbie
1364 posts
Jun 26, 2007
8:01 AM
|
Brenda,
Yes, I use 1 tsp all spice. There are a lot of rice and lentil, about 8 cups, I think. So 1 tsp is not a lot at all.
I made it again and added currants and chopped dates. It tastes yummy.
I reduced the onions. :-)
----------
Debbie
Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all. ~ Harriet Van Horne
|
LLHB
1 post
Jul 21, 2007
8:32 PM
|
I am on a Candida cleanse diet right now so decided I had to master this dish. Tasted it the first time at the Nicholas restaurant in Portland, OR. last Christmas, when we spent Christmas with our son and daughter-in-law. I love that restaurant , so easy for a vegan to eat there!!
here is my version of it, and I think it is pretty close to what we had there.
MJADRA (Lentil Pottage)
This is a middle eastern dish
1/2 c. uncooked lentils
2 c. water
1 lg. onion, chopped
1/2 c. olive oil
1/4 tsp. cumin
1/4 teaspoon Coriander
1/8th teaspoon dried garlic
Salt to taste
2 cups cooked whole grain basmati rice, (from about 1 cup dry)
Rinse lentils and place in a pan with water. Boil for 20 minutes on medium fire. or until they are done. Sauté chopped onions in oil. Add onions, and seasonings to the lentils, add cooked rice. Let set on very low heat for about 10 minutes.
May be eaten hot or cold. It thickens as it cools. ENJOY!
I prefer this dish hot with plain yogurt on top.
Here are some secrets to cooking basmati rice that after talking to people from the middle east gave me secrets to cooking it.
Basmati Rice
Measure 1 cup of Basmati rice into a 1 quart bowl.
Wash and drain the rice several times, stirring rice with your fingers until the water no longer clouds up.
Drain out the water and refill the bowl with fresh water. Allow to soak for a minimum of one hour. (allow to soak overnight, if possible)
Drain the washed rice and pour into the boiling water for 15 minutes . Pour off water and bring 1 cup water to a boil. Add 1 teaspoon salt and 1-2 teaspoons of oil and add the rice and cook covered until the water is gone on very low heat. Stir a few times with a wooden spoon. Do not over stir, or you'll break up the grains.
Stir once, cover again, and let it sit for another 5-10 minutes before serving.
Enjoy,
Lorna
|
Brenda W.
178 posts
Jul 22, 2007
4:07 PM
|
Hi Lorna,
Thanks for adding in on this really interesting thread. What I finally did for my version was the following:
I carmelized a HUGE amount of onions (about 3 large), salting them as I began the cooking process. After about 20 minutes of almost constant stirring, I had a much, much MUCH smaller volume of the most tasty, carmelized onions you can imagine. They had cooked down into a brown goo (good goo, not yucky goo!!!) In fact, this was tasty enough to lick the spoon!!
I then added a bunch of dry lentils right into the carmelized onions in the pan (I wish I'd paid attention to how much .. but probably a cup and a half or so of dried lentils) and added in a 3 or 4 cups of vegetable broth. I added a tablespoon or so of apple cider vinegar, and about a teaspoon and a half of cumin.
I brought all this to a boil, and then simmered it until the lentils were tender and as much of the broth had cooked off as I wished (I cooked all this WITHOUT a lid right in the fry pan). About 30-40 minutes or so.
Last Edited on 23-Jul-2007 2:04 PM
|
|
|
