Mujadara Hamra

Recipe By Hadias Cuisine

A specialty of southern Lebanon, frugal, healthy, delicious, vegan and ingredients are most probably  found in your house hold.  Yes, the dish is cheap to make as lentils, onions and bulgur make up the bulk of it – southern Lebanese cuisine relies heavily on bulgur.  Ladies there take pride in mastering mujadara hamra. The end result should be firm, separate and never sticky and clumped together with a brown dark color tint. An authentic mujadara hamra needs no seasoning other than salt, all the flavors come together with perfect harmony! And did I mention that it is a very good source of protein and fibers!!

Easy to put together, the only real work is to be aware how to deep cook the caramelized onions since the color and flavor of the dish heavily relies on them.

Serve it with yogurt on the side,  fattoush , Middle Eastern salad and oregano salad and you’ve got a certifiably wonderful lunch or dinner.

- One trick worth mentioning is not to overcook the lentils when boiled alone – you don’t need a mushy mujadara.
- Traditionally, mujadara hamra is made with brown lentils, but it is still doable with green lentils!

Red onions are highly recommended in making “Mujadara Hamra

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup brown lentils
½ cup coarse bulgur
5 medium-sized onions, finely chopped
½ cup of olive oil and canola oil, mixed together
3 cups water
1 teaspoon salt, or to taste

DIRECTIONS:

1. Visually inspect the lentils for any small stones. Wash and place in pot. Add three cups of water, bring to a boil, cover the pot and simmer over low heat about 20 minutes or until lentils are cooked but not overly soft.  Drain in a colander and save its liquid.

2. Heat the olive and canola oil in a saucepan over medium heat, cook the onions for about ten minutes, stirring every few minutes.

3. Continue to cook and scarpe until onions are very dark brown in color, very crucial for the end result of the dish, the success of this dish lies in

4. Add the drained liquid from the lentils to the onions and let it simmer for one minute.

5. Add the cooked lentils, salt and the coarse bulgur slowly stirring the mixture.

6. Cover the saucepan and cook over very low heat for 25-30 minutes.

7. Serve with pita bread, radishes, fattoush, Middle Eastern salad, or some plain yogurt! Heavenly!!