Lebanese Majudarah
This past weekend was filled with rain. From Saturday morning until late Sunday afternoon, gray skies and plenty of puddles was mother nature’s mood. If I were to be a glass half full type of person, I’d say the rain forced us to tend to some much needed chores as we prepare ourselves and our home for Christmas this week!
This will be our first time spending Christmas day in our home, and I can’t wait to start making holiday traditions of our own. If nothing else, not having to orchestrate the logistics of Santa’s gifts to and from grandparents’ houses will be much easier.
In the midst of never ending laundry, rain and meal planning for this week, I decided to make majudarah. This is the way my Lebanese grandmother made it, and it’s a wonderful one pot meal in the winter. It involves five ingredients that I always have as staples in my pantry: olive oil, rice, lentils, chicken stock and onions.
This meal is naturally gluten-free, and you can easily substitute the chicken stock with water or vegetable stock to make it vegan as well. I like using the chicken stock simply for the flavor, but any of the three options will work.
This recipe makes enough for a crowd, or expect to have left-overs later in the week. If you do have left-overs, just add a little water or chicken stock to the pot as you re-heat the majudarah over low heat. You can store it in an air tight container for up to a week in the refrigerator.
Like most grandmother’s recipes, this one for majudarah is a “watch, taste and adjust” as you go type of dish. The more you make it, the more you will get a feel for how much seasoning to use, when to add more chicken stock, etc. In the meantime, I’ve added a few extra notes within the recipe below to help guide you along the way.
While the rice and lentils are a meal in itself, I’d recommend serving the majudarah with fresh green beans, roasted carrots or a salad.
Bon appétit!
Lebanese Majudarah: Lentils, rice and onions
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons of olive oil
- 2 large yellow onions, peeled and quartered
- 1 lb. of brown or green dried lentils, rinsed and drained
- 48 oz. (1 1/2 quarts) chicken stock (plus more as needed)
- Kosher salt
- Pepper
- 1 cup long grain white rice
Instructions
- Add the olive oil to a heavy bottom pot or Dutch oven and place over medium-high heat.
- Add the onions and sauté in the olive oil for a few minutes, making sure they don’t burn.
- Add the dried lentils and stir to mix with the onions. Sauté the lentils and onions together for 2-3 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add the chicken stock and season with salt and pepper. Don’t be shy with adding salt and pepper, but you can also adjust seasoning at the end as well once the rice is cooked.
- Bring the chicken stock, lentils and onion to a boil.
- Reduce the heat and let it simmer until it’s the consistency of a thick soup. The lentils will soak up the chicken stock as they cook, so add a little more chicken stock if needed to maintain that thick soup consistency.
- Add the rice. Make sure there’s enough chicken stock in the pot to cover the rice. Add more if needed, just enough to cover the top of the rice. You want the rice to have enough liquid to absorb as it cooks.
- Cover the pot with a lid and simmer for 20 minutes, until the rice is cooked.
- Remove the lid and stir to combine all of the ingredients together.
- Remove from the heat and serve warm.
