One Pot Mujadara (Middle Eastern Lentils and Rice)

Mujadara is a humble but extremely popular vegan middle eastern dish made with lentils, rice, and onions. Although the dish is simple, it’s packed full of flavour and the onions are what make it magical! This authentic Arabic mujadara recipe has been tested to perfection, and the rice and lentils are cooked in one pot!

Mujadara: Humble But Delicious!

I didn’t grow up on mujadara. My meat-loving family didn’t often consider a meatless dish a “proper” meal. I got to know mujadara more intimately through Lebanese friends and Levantine restaurants here in Canada. And I fell in love!

In this dish, simply rice, lentils and onions make magic. Mujadara is a dish that is delicately spiced, just with salt, pepper and cumin. The seasoning is subtle for a reason, to allow the onion and lentil flavours to shine. The best part is the caramelized onions on top, but they are also the most time consuming. I do skip them some days if I’m short on time, but I highly recommend you try it with the onions at least once!

I do have a trick to caramelize onions faster which I discovered while testing the recipe: drop a lid on them the first 10-15 minutes and it’ll cut down the cook time dramatically. It might be counterintuitive to cover and add more moisture, but it all ends up evaporating and cooking down much faster.

Mujadara is a vegetarian dish that’s on rotation at my house along with this delicious Iraqi carrot rice, and this fava bean and dill rice – try them as well!

Let’s Make Mujadara

Grab your ingredients. The most important note to make is to use brown or green lentils, never red split lentils. Those will yield completely different results and will end up mushy.

I tested this recipe many times to ensure I can give you the easiest method, but also the most fool-proof method. This dish can often be finicky, since we are cooking a grain and a legume in the same pot, each of them having a different cooking time.

But never fear! Follow these instructions and you will come out hugging your bowl of mujadara!

TIP: The most efficient way to cook mujadara is to start the caramelized onions first for the topping, and then cook the lentils and rice simultaneously while keeping an eye on the onions and stirring them often.

Caramelizing the Onions

Start on the onions that will be used for the topping. These onions can be either caramelized on low-medium heat resulting in sweet sticky onions, or fried on medium-high heat resulting in crispy onions.

Slice 3-4 onions into thin even sized (as best as you can) wings. You can use a mandolin for this step if you don’t love slicing onions.

Heat half a cup of the olive oil in a skillet (I prefer stainless steel) for a few minutes on medium-low heat. Drop the onions in and stir them around.

If you like soft, sticky and caramelized onions (like this recipe suggests), drop a lid on the onions for the first 10-15 minutes. This will help to wilt them faster and reduce the total cooking time.

After about 10 minutes, remove the lid and continue to stir them around every 3-4 minutes, up to about 30 minutes total cook time or until they turn a deep golden colour. Don’t stop stirring or the onions will stick to the pot!

Remove them from the oil using a spider or strainer and allow them to drain on some paper towels. Do not discard the oil leftover from the onions!

TIP: If you prefer crispy fried onions as opposed to softer caramelized onions, follow the same process but do not cover the onions, and keep the heat on medium-high, stirring more frequently until they crisp up.

Cooking the Lentils and Rice in One Pot

Dice one of the onions finely and soften them for 4-5 minutes in olive oil, in a non-stick pot suitable for rice.

Once the onions soften and turn translucent (no need to brown them), add the brown lentils, the chicken stock and the water. Do not add any salt! Bring the pot to a rolling boil, then cover and cook the lentils for 10 minutes.

TIP: While recipe testing, I discovered that adding salt while cooking the lentils will make them tough and increase their cooking time. It may result in “hard” lentils, so always add the salt after the lentils have cooked.

Meanwhile, wash the rice really well until the water runs clear, and drain it. Do not soak your rice!

After 10 minutes, test the lentils to ensure they are nearly cooked. Add in the rice, the salt, pepper, and the cumin. Stir once to combine.

Wait 2-3 minutes for the water to come to a boil again, cover and cook for 20 minutes on medium-low heat.

After 20 minutes, remove the lid and fluff the lentils and rice with a fork very gently. Allow it to stand for another 10 minutes, covered. Before serving, pour over any leftover olive oil you have from frying the onions to really amp up the flavour!

Serve the mujadara topped with the caramelized onions.

Since mujadara is a “dry” rice dish, it is always served with a zingy middle eastern salad on the side, such as this cabbage Malfouf salad or arabic salad.

It is also almost always served with a bowl of plain yogurt to scoop on top (you have to try it!). Or you can serve it with Jajik, a cucumber yogurt salad which will work perfectly.

If you tried these recipes, please consider leaving a star ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating in the recipe card below and/or a review in the comments section further down the page – I’d love to hear from you! You can also hop on over to Instagram and say hello!