Sunday, April 24, 2022

Mujadara Hamra (Lentil Bulgur Pilaf)

I wanted a healthy side dish for dinner tonight and this is what I found.  There were many variations as I searched recipes and I used what sounded good to me.  This dish is all about the caramelized onions...

  • 6 small organic onions, halved and sliced thinly
  • 4 cups organic "Better than Bouillon" low-sodium vegetable stock
  • 1 cup whole grain red bulgur 
  • 1 cup organic beluga black lentils
  • Organic extra-virgin olive oil, as needed
  • 1/2 teaspoon organic cumin
  • Kosher salt and cracked black pepper, to taste
  • Fried red onions, for garnish (I have these in jar from Asian supermarket)
  • Fresh organic cilantro, chopped coarsely for garnish


I started by rinsing the lentils.  Then I boiled them in the stock until almost cooked following package directions stopping 10 minutes early.  I set aside, off the heat.  


In the meantime I splashed some oil into a fry pan and went about sautéing the onions with a hit of S&P.  


These had to be caramelized and very brown so this took a good while, I did it low and slow to avoid burning them and stirred every few minutes.  This took me about an hour doing it that way but OMG, so delish!  When done, I scraped everything into the lentils along with the bulgur, cumin and S&P.   The bulgur immediately sucked up all the remaining liquid, so I had to add more water... 


I brought to a boil, then lowered the heat.  I covered and simmered for  about 15 minutes until bulgur and lentils were done.  I wanted everything cooked through but not mushy.  I served with the red onions garnish which were crispy.  I also added cilantro only for the fact how BROWN this dish was, lol.  


My neighbor gave me some African Peanut Stew she made so I thought this would go well with our dinner.  I also made Berbere spiced, Aleppo pepper oven-fried chicken.  


But the Mujadara, omg, the onions were the STAR 🌟- they made the whole flavor profile amazing!!!  What a great healthy dish.  This goes into the side dish rotation though I'm sure it's worthy as a meal in itself.  What a stellar dinner!  

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