Adapted

Rice and lentils with crisp onion

A conversion of an established dish. The underlying technique is known-good; the substitutions below are the novel part, and they are documented.

Serves4
Burners1
Pans1
Water1.2 L
Active15 min
Total45 min
FridgeNot needed
Modestrip, pantry

Ingredients

  • Long grain rice 250 g
  • Green lentils (dried) 150 g
  • Onion (dried, flakes) 25 g
  • Cumin (ground) 6 g
  • Olive oil 45 ml
  • Salt (fine) 8 g

Rice and lentils in one pan, which sounds like nothing and is one of the most satisfying things in this whole category. The trick is that the lentils go in first and get a head start, so both finish together.

Green lentils, not red — red ones collapse and you would end up with a very different dish.

  1. Rinse the lentils and put them in the pan with about 700 ml of water. Bring to the boil and simmer 15 minutes. They should be nearly tender but still whole.
  2. Rinse the rice, add it to the same pan with another 300 ml of water and a good pinch of salt. Bring back to the boil, put a lid on, turn the heat as low as it will go and leave for 12 minutes without lifting the lid.
  3. Off the heat, lid still on, ten minutes to steam.
  4. While it steams, heat the oil hard in a mug or the corner of another pan. Add the dried onion and stand over it — it goes from pale to golden to burnt in about ninety seconds. Pull it off at deep gold. Add the cumin to the hot oil for the last ten seconds.
  5. Fork the rice and lentils through, then tip the onion and its oil over the top.

Cook this to the meal. Rice is the one thing in this cupboard you should not keep without a fridge — see the rice page for why reheating does not rescue it. Portion the dry rice to the number of people eating, and there is nothing to decide afterwards.

Serves 4.

What this was adapted from

Mujaddara — the Levantine dish of rice and lentils finished with heavily browned onion

  • fresh onions, slowly fried until dark → dried onion flakes crisped in hot oil

    The browned onion is the entire point of mujaddara, and dried flakes will not match forty minutes of patient frying. But they do crisp and darken in hot oil in about two minutes, giving real sweetness and crunch for a fraction of the fuel — which on one burner is the deciding factor.