Mujaddara (Lentils and Rice with Crispy Onions)
مجدرہ (کرارے پیاز کے ساتھ دال چاول)
Mujaddara is one of the oldest and most loved dishes of Lebanon, Syria, Palestine and Jordan: brown or green lentils and rice cooked together with cumin, then crowned with a generous heap of deeply browned, crispy onions. It costs very little, it's naturally vegan, and it's the kind of food people crave. South Asian readers will recognise it at once as a close cousin of khichdi, and like khichdi it's best with a bowl of yogurt and something fresh on the side.
- ⏱ Total: 1 hr
- Prep: 10 min
- Cook: 50 min
- Easy
- Serves 4
Method
Tap a step when it is done.
Simmer the lentils in the water for 15 minutes until just tender but still holding their shape.
Meanwhile, fry the onions in the oil over medium heat for 25–30 minutes, stirring, until deep brown and crisp. Lift out half onto paper; leave the rest in the pan.
Add the rice, cumin, pepper and salt to the onions and oil in the pan and stir for 2 minutes. Tip into the lentils with their water, adding hot water if needed so the liquid is 1 cm above everything.
Cover and cook on the lowest heat for 20 minutes until the rice is tender and the liquid absorbed. Rest for 10 minutes.
Serve topped with the crispy onions, with yogurt and a salad.
Kitchen notes
Don't rush the onions. Deeply browned, crisp onions are the soul of mujaddara.
Use whole brown or green lentils; split red lentils turn mushy.
In parts of Lebanon and Syria, coarse bulgur replaces the rice (mujaddara burghul).
An ancient comfort dish
Mujaddara is often called one of the oldest recipes of the Arab world, and it remains everyday food across the Levant. It was traditionally a food of the poor, made from pantry staples, but today it’s loved by everyone and appears on Lenten tables, in student kitchens and in the finest mezze restaurants.
Onions three ways
The onions do three jobs: they’re fried until crisp for the topping, their flavoured oil cooks the rice, and the softer onion bits melt into the pot. That’s where all the flavour comes from, so the onions need time: at least 25 minutes over steady heat.
Khichdi’s cousin
South Asian cooks will feel at home with mujaddara. It’s like a dry, separate-grained khichdi seasoned with cumin and crowned with birista. Serve it the same way: with plenty of yogurt.
Serving
Serve warm with yogurt or labneh, a crisp salad and pickles. For a lentil soup from the same kitchens, try shorbat adas.
Questions people ask
Is it the same as khichdi?
It's a close cousin: lentils and rice cooked together. Mujaddara uses whole lentils and cumin, stays drier and more separate, and is topped with crispy onions.
Is mujaddara served hot or cold?
Both. It's eaten warm as a main meal and at room temperature as part of a mezze spread.
What salad goes with it?
A simple chopped tomato, cucumber and onion salad with lemon, or fattoush.
Nutrition (estimate, per serving)
- Calories
- 470
- Protein
- 16 g
- Fat
- 20 g
- Carbs
- 58 g
