Majadra

My good friend Paul claims that Majadra has everything you need in one meal to get you through the day. I'd question the validity of that, but it is pretty great. Considered to be "Peasant Food", Majadra is inexpensive, full of nutrients, filling, and (most importantly) tasty!

I love middle eastern food. There's a fantastic little place down the street called Haifa Falafel that I go to often. They're a friendly bunch and make amazing food. That said, I love to cook... and because Majadra is great warm or cold, it certainly makes for a great potluck contribution.

Here's the basic recipe I tend to throw together. If you scour the internet, you'll find many different variations on this theme that call themselves "Majadra" but there's no right or wrong. Alter it to your liking!

Serves 12

• 1.5 cup of whole rice (not white)
• 1.5 cup of green lentils
• 2 large onions, cut into thin slices or diced
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon black ground pepper
• 1 teaspoon of paprika (optional)
• 2 medium sized roma tomatoes
  
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1 cup of choped parsly
• (salt to tast if you really want to)
  

1. Cook rice adding twice the amount of water than rice. When the water & rice begins to boil, lower the heat and cover. You'll want to keep an eye on the rice to make sure it doesn't get too dry and doesn't spill over. This technique results in some lovely moist rice.

2. Cook lentils in another pot. The amount of water here doesn't need to be as exact but you want to have about half water and half lentils in your pot. Cook the lentils until they're soft but not too mushy. Keep an eye on this as well.

3. While the lentils and rice are cooking, make yourself useful! Dice up the onions and tomatoes and chop the parsely. Next grab a large pan or wolk and fry the onions slowly with a little bit of oil oil until they start to brown.

4. Once the rice and lentils are done, drain the water. Add the rice and lentils to the large pan along with all of the spices. Fry evenly for around 3 minutes.

5. Remove from heat, and add parsely and tomatoes, serve, NOM!