Here’s to another meatless Monday! This dish is a simple dish consisting of cooked lentils with rice, that originates from the Levant which is a large area in the Eastern part of the Mediterranean also known as بلاد الشام. Personally, this is not my most favorite dish, but it is an easy one, that does not require a lot of effort. Apparently according to my mom, the poor people who do not have enough money to buy meat, would resort to this meal as an alternative to provide them with the same nutrients as meat.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup of brown lentils
- 2 cups of Egyptian Rice/short grain rice
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp cumin
- 1 tbsp of vegetable oil.
Preparation:
- Soak the rice for around 20 minutes.
- Rinse the lentils under cold water.
Cooking:
- Place the lentils in a pot, add around two cups of cold water, let it boil on high heat.
- Once the lentils are boiled, you cover them and let it simmer on medium low heat for 20 minutes until half cooked.
- Add the vegetable oil, salt, and cumin to the lentils.
- Drain the rice and add it to the lentils.
- Add boiled water, if needed to cover the ingredients. Cover and let it cook on low heat for another 10 minutes.
- Stir the pot, and then turn off the heat and cover it once again and let the dish sit on the stove for a while.
Like I said earlier in the introduction, this isn’t exactly my most favorite meal, and the reason behind that is because if it were to be eaten alone without any sides, then it is quite bland. There are a lot of sides that accompany this dish, and none of them are meat! You can have a side of plain yogurt that goes along with this dish as you can see in the photo below, you can have a side salad of diced tomatoes, onions that is sprinkled with salt and olive oil. Or you can top the dish with a kind of tomato sauce, fried onions, and elbow pasta, this is when the dish becomes Egyptian مجدرة, which is also known as Kushari.
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