It is sooo cold! Like a lot of people we are enduring a major cold snap. All I have wanted to do for the last week is curl up in front of the fire, read and eat hot heavy food. Never mind salad, exercise or actually trying to think.

I have been craving lentils. Don’t know if it is the protein or the iron my body wants, but whatever it is, I have been fixated on lentils. There is nothing quite like lentil soup on a cold day. But I can’t live by soup alone, so decided to make a lentil and rice dish. It is a loosely Middle Eastern dish called Mujadara that is satisfying and extremely simple to make. 

You can either used canned or pre-cooked lentils and can make the rice from scratch or if you have pre-made rice you can use that.  In this case I used a can of Westbrea Natural Lentils and Trader Joe’s pre-cooked brown rice.

Lentils, Brown Rice and Onions

1. Sauté in a large frying pan
   • 3 diced yellow onions
   • garlic to taste
2. When onions are soft (about five minutes) add
   • 1/2 cup water
   • 3/4 teaspoon ground cumin
   • 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
   • salt to taste
3. Cook for about 15 minutes checking often since you may need to add 1/4-1/2 cup of water to keep the mixture from sticking
4. Remove about 1/2 of the cooked onions and set aside
5. With the remaining mixture in the pan stir in
   • 1 cup cooked brown rice
   • 1 can or 2 cups  of cooked lentils
   • pepper to taste
6. Serve in a shallow bowl and top with the set aside onions and garnish with parley

Time from start to eating is about 20 minutes. Eat it alone or with steamed veggies and even with a salad.