mujaddara


This is my super easy version of mujaddara which is a delicious spicy dish of lentils, rice and caramelised onions with parsley which dates all the way back to a recipe book written in 1226 from Iraq. It is served in restaurants from Egypt to Isreal and is delicious served with a salad, chopped cucumbers and with plain yogurt or labneh. It is served at room temperature so it’s perfect for preparing in advance for a dinner or picnic. You can serve it with a green salad and or with meat or fish. It’s a staple round mine.

Recipe

Serves 4-6 depending on what you serve it with.

Ingredients:
2 x 250g bags of cooked brown basmati rice (supermarket)
1 x 400g tin or carton of green or brown lentils(I use Puy lentils too)
1 tablespoon of ground cumin
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1 tablespoon ground coriander
¼ -½ teaspoon of chilli powder
2 minced garlic cloves
2-3 finely sliced large red onions
4 tablespoons of olive oil
2 lemons zested and cut into wedges for squeezing
big bunch of roughly chopped parsley
Salt to taste

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paella

Hola! This is one of my favourite dishes ever.

I make it with a lower ratio of rice to seafood so it’s mostly seafood, which makes it more delicious and healthier. My version is created with all the amazing moorish flavours that are really special as I combined all the best bits from each Spanish recipe I could find and reworked it and it is really simple to make and only needs one pan. My friends think it is the best paella they’ve ever had, partly because the seafood is steamed on the rice for the last ten minutes so it’s tender and not dried out and over cooked. If you are feeding more people just double or triple the quantities, as needed. Just make sure you use a big enough pan.

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middle eastern basmati rice with chickpeas, currants, and herbs

This rice salad is taken from Ottolenghi’s Jerusalem cookbook, only I have made it simpler. My friends all complain that his recipes are too complicated so they don’t bother to make them. Perfect with meat and chicken or just vegetarian dishes.

Serves 6.

Ingredients:
400 g can of chickpeas, drained
1 bag of cooked basmati rice (about 2-3 cups)
2-3 tablespoons of olive oil
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 ½ teaspoon of curry powder
100 g currants
Crispy onions from supermarket (in a plastic tub)
2 tablespoons of chopped parsley
1 tablespoon of chopped coriander
1 tablespoon of chopped dill
Salt and pepper

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