Mujaddara

Mujaddara is a Levantine lentil-and-grain dish with caramelised onions. This profile follows Lebanese author Yumna Jawad's rice version, fixing basmati rice and brown lentils from the recipe's documented choices.

Brown lentils bring earthy depth and basmati rice a clean grain flavour. Deeply browned onions provide the dish's defining sweetness and savoury intensity, while cumin adds warm fragrance.

The pilaf is loose and pebbled, with separate pale rice grains and intact brown lentils beneath a crown of crisp dark-golden onions. Reserved onion oil leaves the grains lightly glossy rather than wet.