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The Levant and Anatolia · Volume 03, The Pestle, the Pantry and the Mezze Table

Mujaddara

Lebanon, pan-Levant

Mujaddara, lentils and bulgur with deeply caramelised onion: a shallow mound of brown lentils and pale bulgur grains in a wide bowl, piled high with a generous tangle of deeply caramelised.

Illustration

Time
1 hour
Researched
8 sources cited

Mujaddara is lentils and grain under a heap of onion fried until nearly black. This version uses coarse bulgur, and half the onion is folded through the pot while the rest is piled on top.

As tradition built it

Serves 4 to 6. About 1 hour.

Ingredients

  • 125g brown or green lentils
  • 200g coarse bulgur
  • 300ml olive oil, divided
  • 4 large onions, thinly sliced
  • 500ml water, part for the lentils and the rest for the bulgur
  • to taste salt
  • to taste pepper
  • 1 tsp ground cumin

Method

  1. Boil the lentils in some of the water, salted, until nearly tender.
  2. While the lentils cook, fry the sliced onions in a generous portion of the olive oil, slowly, until deeply, almost blackened caramelised, not merely golden. This step is worth as much patience as it takes.
  3. Add the coarse bulgur to the part-cooked lentils along with the remaining water, salt, pepper and cumin, and simmer until the bulgur is tender and the liquid absorbed.
  4. Fold roughly half the caramelised onion through the finished lentils and bulgur, reserving the rest to pile on top.

Notes

This is the Beiruti "mujaddara safra" style, made with bulgur.

What a modern chef changes

The onion's caramelisation treated as a genuine technique, not a garnish step

No numbered rung; a heat-management discipline in its own right

Method

  1. Fry the onions low and slow in a wide pan, never crowded, over a genuinely long stretch of time; the deep, near-black caramelisation this dish wants cannot be rushed without turning bitter.
  2. Salt the onions partway through, not at the start, since early salting draws out moisture too fast and steams rather than fries the slices.
  3. Reserve the very best of the caramelised onion to finish the dish on top, still warm from the pan, rather than folding all of it in, so the finished plate carries both the onion worked through the grain and a distinct, more textured layer on top.
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