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Real food cooked by real people
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/02/weekinreview/02bittman.html
This article recommends learning to cook three basic recipes to make yourself and the planet healthier. They are: a stir fry, a chopped salad, and a lentils-and-rice recipe. These are all staple meals in our household (add tacos - which we use as a loose term for some almost-always vegetarian combination of beans, onions, salsa, and other goodies as available, wrapped in a tortilla - to complete our list of Stuff We Eat Almost Weekly).
If you haven't already gotten my recipe for lentils yet, here you go. Mjadra is a Lebanese dish, very basic "poor people's" food, as beans and rice tends to be. It's easy - takes about 40 minutes, almost none of which requires your attention - and very low in ingredients, most of which don't spoil easily. And it's delicious. For me, for my brothers, and for my husband, it's comfort food. My father likes to say it's the lentil pottage that Esau sold his birthright for.
Mjadra (Lebanese lentil pottage)
1 C uncooked lentils (brown)
4 C water (or stock)
1 lg. onion, chopped
1/2 C olive or vegetable oil
1/8 t pepper
1/8 t cumin
salt to taste
1/2 C uncooked rice (if brown, add at beginning of process. If white, add when combining onions and lentils)
Rinse lentils and rice and place in a pan with water and seasonings. Boil for 20 minutes on medium heat. Saute chopped onions in oil. Add onion and residue to the lentils. Cover and cook for 20 minutes. Stir occasionally. Serve on a platter--thickens as it cools. Eat hot or cold, with bread or alone. Great with a salad on the side.
Serves 4-6
This article recommends learning to cook three basic recipes to make yourself and the planet healthier. They are: a stir fry, a chopped salad, and a lentils-and-rice recipe. These are all staple meals in our household (add tacos - which we use as a loose term for some almost-always vegetarian combination of beans, onions, salsa, and other goodies as available, wrapped in a tortilla - to complete our list of Stuff We Eat Almost Weekly).
If you haven't already gotten my recipe for lentils yet, here you go. Mjadra is a Lebanese dish, very basic "poor people's" food, as beans and rice tends to be. It's easy - takes about 40 minutes, almost none of which requires your attention - and very low in ingredients, most of which don't spoil easily. And it's delicious. For me, for my brothers, and for my husband, it's comfort food. My father likes to say it's the lentil pottage that Esau sold his birthright for.
Mjadra (Lebanese lentil pottage)
1 C uncooked lentils (brown)
4 C water (or stock)
1 lg. onion, chopped
1/2 C olive or vegetable oil
1/8 t pepper
1/8 t cumin
salt to taste
1/2 C uncooked rice (if brown, add at beginning of process. If white, add when combining onions and lentils)
Rinse lentils and rice and place in a pan with water and seasonings. Boil for 20 minutes on medium heat. Saute chopped onions in oil. Add onion and residue to the lentils. Cover and cook for 20 minutes. Stir occasionally. Serve on a platter--thickens as it cools. Eat hot or cold, with bread or alone. Great with a salad on the side.
Serves 4-6
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I usually just start cooking the onions, on medium heat, about the same time I start boiling the lentils. If you slap a lid on the onions and give them a stir once or twice, then they'll be ready when it's time to add them to the lentils.
You can also just toss the onions into the lentils toward the end of the process, if you like your onions more browned. The main goal with the timing of the onion cooking, in my opinion, is to reduce the number of times you have to get up and do anything to stuff on the stove. So starting everything at once is good for that, and then you only have to break once to stick the onions in with everything else.
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One of the things about this is that you stir it a fair bit right at the end and it ends up looking sort of like oatmeal, goopy and honestly not necessarily all that appealing. But the texture is something I enjoy about it when I eat it. I usually eat it with bread and salad -- you can spread it on the bread if you like -- so that gives me variation in the meal...
I feel like there might be potential in adding toasted nuts right at the end. You could try to go Indian with it and add curry powder... wow that would change it into something almost like dahl. (Which I also like, but is different...)
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This looks freaking DELISH!! I cannot wait to try this! Thank you!
What kind of rice do you use? The only thing I have kicking around is sushi rice and I'm not sure that would work.
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BTW, I highly recommend you use brown rice, it's extra healthy and easier 'cos you just throw it all into the water at the same time. And if you have to go buy rice anyway... get the long grain brown stuff. Any long grain will do.
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