Loving the Lentils and Making M'judra

By mid-week, I usually realize that we have already eaten one of the key ingredients that I had bought with a recipe in mind. This week I had been hoping to make Yetakelt W'et, the tastier of the two Ethiopian dishes that I made a few weeks ago. Alas, it requires making a spiced clarified butter first and I used up two of the spices while making soup on Sunday. After a short search, I turned up a few recipes for M'judra with rave reviews and very few ingredients, all of which we happened to own. With that, my desire to try M'judra was born.

M'judra (served with steamed broccoli drizzled in BBQ sauce because it tastes good that way)

Ingredients:

• Lentils, dry, 245 gram(s)
• Brown Rice, uncooked, 376 gram(s)
• Onions, raw, 2 large
• Olive Oil, 2 tbsp
• Salt, 1 tbsp
• Water, about 6 cups more as needed
• Plain Non-fat Yogurt (optional)

Directions:

• Boil lentils in the water until nearly tender, about 25 minutes.
• While lentils are boiling, slice onions finely into half circles and cook over low heat in olive oil until caramelized.
• When onions are finished cooking, set them aside on a paper towel to absorb excess fluids.

• Add rice to the pot of lentils after they are tender and add a few cups of water if necessary, return to a simmer.
• Add salt and simmer slowly until the rice is tender and all the fluid is absorbed – approx 20 minutes.
• Continue adding water as necessary until rice is tender.
• Serve hot or cold, garnished with the crisp brown onion slices and few spoonfuls plain yogurt (not shown in picture).

Serves 8

Calories (w/o yogurt) ~ 322, Carbs ~ 57 g, Fat ~ 5 g, Protein ~ 13 g

This one seemed to be a big hit with Chris. He appreciated the price point, about $2 for 8-servings and he is a big fan of rice in any form. I liked it a lot as well. I was pretty excited to have leftovers for lunch for a few days!