I discovered Mujaddara probably about ten years ago at this little Lebanese lunch spot in Baton Rouge, called Serop’s Express. I didn’t know what the brown mixture was, but I ordered on a whim and I was instantly in love. The soft grain-like mixture was earthy, flavorful, and had an intoxicating blend of seasoning. I immediately googled the recipe, determined to make it myself.
(I added chopped cilantro for garnish and to add color to the photo. Cilantro is not needed for the recipe.)
What is Mujaddara?
Mujaddara is a simple, filling, and flavorful Arabic dish made with rice, lentils, and caramelized onions. There are many ways to make it, with each region and family having their own spin, but the common thread among them all is rice, lentils, and caramelized onions. However it’s made, though, it’s usually extremely delicious, filling, and very inexpensive. So, in other words, it’s definitely a budget byte!
My Interpretation
Despite trying several times over the past ten years, I’ve never been able to replicate Serop’s magic recipe. I’ve even had friends question members of the restaurant’s family about what’s in the dish, only to get the answer “rice and lentils”. *sigh* I’ve had mujaddara at other Lebanese restaurants, but none of them compare to what Serop’s serves up. I don’t know what kind of magic they put in there, but it’s way more delicious and intoxicating than just rice and lentils.
The version I finally settled on is as close to Serop’s as I can get. It has plenty of caramelized onions to give it a deep, rich flavor, vegetable broth to make the flavor a little more complex, and a healthy dose of aromatic spices to keep things interesting. This recipe makes a big batch of about 6 cups, but this recipe will freeze very well, so any leftovers can be saved for later.
What to Serve with Mujaddara
I’ve been eating mine plain in a bowl, but it goes great with sautéed greens, roasted vegetables, or even topped with a fried egg. It’s kind of one of those all-purpose dishes that can be eaten at almost every meal. No wonder it’s been around so long!
Try the Authentic Version
As you can see, I’ve played around with the basic mujaddara concept quite a bit here, so you may want to try an authentic recipe first. Plus, you’ll probably get to learn a lot about this dish’s rich culture and history while you’re at it. Here are some great authentic mujaddara recipes to try:
- Lebanese Mujadara from Feel Good Foodie
- Mujadara from The Mediterranean Dish
- Mujadara from Cardamom and Tea
Mujaddara
Servings 6 (1 cup each)Ingredients
- 2 Tbsp olive oil ($0.32)
- 4 yellow onions ($1.59)
- 1 tsp cumin ($0.10)
- 1 tsp allspice ($0.10)
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves ($0.03)
- 2.5 cups vegetable broth ($0.30)
- 1 cup long grain white rice (or jasmine) ($0.33)
- 1 cup brown lentils ($0.68)
Instructions
- Thinly slice the onions and add them to a large pot with the olive oil. Cook over low heat, stirring frequently for one hour, or until they are deeply golden brown, sticky, and caramelized. Remove half of the onions and set them aside to top the pilaf after cooking
- Add the cumin, allspice, and cloves to the pot with the remaining onions. Sauté for about one minute to lightly toast the spices. Add the vegetable broth and stir the pot well to dissolve any browned bits stuck to the bottom of the pot.
- Add the rice and lentils to the pot. Cover the pot with a lid and turn the heat up to high. Allow the contents to come up to a boil. As soon as it reaches a full boil, turn the heat down to low and let it simmer for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, turn the heat off and let it rest for 10 minutes without removing the lid. Finally, remove the lid, fluff with a spoon or fork, then top with the reserved caramelized onions. Serve warm.
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Notes
Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?Mention @budgetbytes or tag #budgetbytes on Instagram!How to Make Mujaddara – Step by Step Photos
This recipe starts with caramelized onions, which lend a lot of flavor to the final pilaf. They take a long time to make, but are well worth it. Begin by thinly slicing four yellow onions and adding them to a large pot with 2 Tbsp olive oil. Cook the onions over low heat, stirring frequently for one hour. You can stir less frequently at first, but will need to keep a closer eye towards the end. I did chores around the house during the first part, remembering to walk back into the kitchen every few minutes to stir.
After an hour or so, they should be deep golden brown, sticky, and caramelized. If you don’t like the stringy texture of caramelized onions, you can dice them instead. They will probably cook a little faster when diced and will blend into the pilaf a little better.
Remove half of the onions and set them aside to top the pilaf later. Add 1 tsp cumin, 1 tsp allspice, and 1/4 tsp ground cloves to the pot. Sauté the spices with the remaining onions for about a minute. This toasts the spices slightly, which enhances their flavor.
Add 2.5 cups of vegetable broth to the pot and stir to dissolve any browned bits off the bottom. All that browned onion sugar will help give a lot of flavor to the Mujaddara.
Add one cup of long-grain white rice and one cup of brown lentils to the pot. I used jasmine rice because it’s my favorite, but you can use plain white rice if desired. You’ll want to use brown lentils and not French or “green” lentils because those take twice as long to cook as brown lentils. If unsure, check the packaging to see the recommended cooking time. It should be 20-30 minutes.
Add the rice and lentils to the pot, place a lid on top, then turn the heat up to high. Let the pot come to a full boil. Once it reaches a boil, turn it down to low heat and let it simmer for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, turn the heat off and let it rest with the lid in place for 10 more minutes. After the ten-minute rest, you’ll have this (see photo above).
Fluff it up with a spoon or fork (looks more appetizing now, for sure). The rice and lentils should have absorbed all the broth and be soft and tender all the way through.
Top the Mujaddara with the reserved caramelized onions and serve! YUM.
I love mujaddara but never bothered to make it as I assumed it was complicated, but you made it super easy. Mine turned mushy so I need to play around with the amount of liquid next time around, but the flavor was all there.
I’ve made dozens of BudgetBytes recipes, and this is the only one that’s been a failure. The 2.5 cups of water was completely gone after only 5 minutes of simmering–the mixture was bone dry and sticking to the bottom of the pot, even though my burner was on the lowest setting. I ended up needing about double the liquid. After 30 minutes the rice was done but the lentils (brown) were nowhere near there. Not to mention, the onions took well over an hour to caramelize.
My experience was exactly the same. Everything ended up tasting good once I adjusted the liquid (and spent 2 hours caramelizing onions), but I’m not exactly sure why the liquid was so sparse. In the description, it mentioned mujaddara being “crumbly”, are the rice and lentils supposed to be under cooked??
No, they aren’t supposed to be under cooked. :) The restaurant version is just crumbly as in the rice and lentils did not hold their shape. I couldn’t even tell what it was until I Googled it. :P I suspect that different types of lentils may need a different amount of liquid, but the amount listed above was enough to soften both my rice and lentils. Recipes are like that, though. They often need to be tweaked a little to fit each person’s ingredients and equipment.
Yeah, I had a similar experience where the liquid wasn’t nearly enough, so it ended up extremely dry and somewhat undercooked.
Also COVER the pot when cooking the lentils and rice. I have no idea why it says to cover when bringing to the boil and uncover when cooking on low heat; you need to do the precise opposite. I sure hope they aren’t paying these authors anything…
I don’t see where you saw that it says to uncover the pot. I just went back to make sure that there wasn’t a mistake that I needed to fix, but I don’t see it. Can you tell me where? Thanks.
I’ve made this recipe before and now it’s making me hungry! I like the thought of a cucumber and tomato salad on the side too. I’ll have to do that next time!
Made this last night; a real hit. The whole house smells great, everyone loved it.
Hi Beth,
I always caramelize onions in my slow cooker and freeze. Do you know how much (more or less than a cup) you have once the onions cook down? I figure using mine would save a lot of time (might use crispy onions on top though)
I would say it was about a cup once cooked down.
amazeballs. what a small world! i grew up on east dearborn cuisine and lived in ann arbor for years!
can’t wait for the rice/lentil combo to finish.
xxalainaxx
I love Mujaddara! Like you said initially, there are many variations of this dish. I learned to make it from a Syrian American and she made it with Bulgur. I like to make carmelized onions in a slow cooker and I think this dish benefits from extra onions on top. Great served with yogurt!
This was delicious! I read and the recipe and just had to come home and make it. The only thing I had to contend with is that I don’t have a stove top, just an electric skillet. For next time, should increase the volume of liquid by a cup and double the spices?
Yes, if it was a bit dry, try increasing the liquid. Doubling the spices just means double the flavor, so that sounds like a good plan! ;)
Beth, your description of trying to get the flavors right reminded me of another recipe I had stumbled across years ago – Ras El Hanout. This is a Moroccan spice mix that is as varied as curry can be.
http://spicelines.com/2006/10/17/ras-el-hanout-the-secret-ingredient-in-moroccan-cooking-lifting-chicken-and-vegetables-from-the-ordinary-to-the-sublime/
Oh wow, that stuff sounds GOOD!
I had to make this ASAP when I saw you posted it. :-) I didn’t get 6 servings, but maybe that’s because it was our entire meal? I got a little over three servings. Or maybe we just eat a lot. Ha! :-)
Very interesting taste and flavor combo. I served it with sour cream on the top…because I like to put sour cream on everything. :-)
I’m not sure if our onions were larger, but it took almost two hours for them to carmelize. Also, didn’t read the step by step directions until after we had already purchased green lentils. Cooked them separetly in broth, but found 1.5 c of liquid was not enough for the rice. The flavors of this dish were good, but not sure I would spend 2.5 hours again…
Yeah for some reason nobody actually stocks brown lentils anymore, even though all these recipes call for it.
I made this tonight with brown jasmine rice and pardina lentils (they both took about 50 minutes to cook). It was great topped with leftover roast chicken and potatoes and a tahini sauce. There’s a place in Toronto that serves amazing mujaddara with their shwarma plates, and I was trying to recreate that flavour balance. Chopped tomatoes and cucumbers as a side would have made it so close to perfect…
This looks amazing! Quick question….I only have green and red lentils. Could I substitute one of those in this dish? Thank you so much for you website!! My family loves all of the recipes I make from you. Keep up the great work, Beth!!!
Definitely use the green, not red because the red will break down far too much. You’ll need to cook the green lentils separately, though, and add them in at the end. Use 1.5 cups of broth when cooking the rice in the onions and spices, and boil the lentils according to the package directions.
What is the green stuff you tossed in at the end? Cilantro or maybe parsley? Definitely makes it prettier but didn’t see under ingredients.
Yeah, I had some cilantro sitting around so I just added it so the pictures would have more color. It’s not part of the recipe or needed for flavor.
Going on my list to try next week! Looks delicious. :-)