“Mudardara” is a traditional vegetarian Lebanese dish made with lentils and rice, and garnished with caramelized onions. It is delicious, healthy, simple to make and not to forget, frugal.
In North Lebanon, we call the “Mudardara” as “Mujaddara w Riz” ie, Mujaddara with rice. And if we were to go all out on our “shmeli” North Lebanon accent, we call it “Mjaddra” or “Mjaddro”… 
This amazing dish goes well with tangy salads, such as the Fattoush Salad and a side of Greek yogurt.
There exists another version of “Mujaddara” which is made with red beans and Burghul (cracked wheat) and which borders being a vegetarian Chili. However it’s quite different than this rice version, but we hope to eventually feature it on our blog as it’s quite beautiful as well.
Recipe: Lentils With Rice and Caramelized Onions – Mudardara
Summary: Mudardara is a traditional lentils and rice dish that is garnished with caramelized onions
Lentils and Rice Mudardara Ingredients (4 servings)
- 2 cups of lentils
- 1 and 1/4 cups of long grain rice
- 4 medium onions, caramelized
- 1/2 teaspoon of salt
- 5 cups of water
- 1/3 cup of oil for frying (coconut or vegetable)
- 1 Table spoon of olive oil
Preparation Method (60 minutes)
- Rinse the lentils with cold water and remove any apparent debris.
- Add the lentils to a pot filled with 5 cups of water, bring to a boil over medium heat, then reduce heat, cover, and let simmer for 20-25 minutes or until lentils are tender.
- Add rice, salt and the olive oil to the pot and stir well. You may need to add 1/2 cup of water if a lot of water had evaporated already. Cover and let simmer on low heat for 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, peel and chop the onions lengthwise and fry them in 1/4 cup of coconut or vegetable oil, for about 20 minutes or until they’re caramelized (dark brown). Strain onions to remove excess oil once done and set aside.
- Once rice has fully cooked, mix it well, then pour it in your serving plate and garnish it with the caramelized onions. Please note that you could also mix the caramelized onions with the rice and lentils while they have about 10 minutes left in cooking.
- Serve cold (preferably) with an optional side of plain/Greek yogurt.
Preparation time: 5 minute(s)
Cooking time: 55 minute(s)
Diet type: Vegetarian
Number of servings (yield): 4
Culinary tradition: Middle Eastern
Copyright © Mama’s Lebanese Kitchen.
- Share it with friends:
Recommend on Facebook- Share on Google +
- Pin it
- Tweet about it
- Subscribe to the comments on this post
- Print for later
- Bookmark in Browser
- Tell a friend
Mudardara is one of my absolute favorites! Great post!
I LOVE this dish – I grew up eating it all the time. I’m not sure if it’s my stove (too hot) or my crappy pans (stainless steel) though – every time I make riz or mjadara, it burns to the bottom of the pan. Any tips to avoid this?
Thanks for stopping by Aaron. A very hot stove can cause the burning/sticking of rice to the bottom of the pan.. This happens with us sometimes so we make sure to cook it on lower heat.
My mujdara came out very mushy and the rice was still a little undercooked
what went wrong?
Sorry to hear Lucy.. lentils may have different cooking time depending on how fresh they are.. so you may want to try to delay putting the lentils in next time around.
It was cold and raining here yesterday, so my son and I whipped up a pot of this and had it with tabouleh and pocket bread as a comfort meal. I just reheated some leftovers and had it for breakfast instead of porridge. This is a favourite meal/snack in our family and I don’t make it often enough…