Aromatic Rice with Spicy Lentils

This delicious yet incredibly simple rice dish combines fluffy fragrant rice with hearty and warming creamy lentils. The slow cooked onions pack a sweet punch and really bring this recipe to life.

(recipe and image produced by the ‘Welcome to Palestine’ team)

Ingredients

Serves 4 – Time 40 minutes

1 cup Jasmine rice
200g Cooked Brown Lentils
2 Large Red onions
3 Tsp of Cumin
1 Tsp of dried Thyme
3 Tsp Seasalt
1 mild chilli
Small handful of Coriander
3 large cloves of Garlic
2 tbsp of quality Olive Oil
Natural yogurt and lemon (optional)

Instructions

Slice the onions and sauté in a heavy pan on a high heat for 5 minutes with a tbsp of olive oil. Add 2 cloves of finely chopped garlic, reduce the heat to very low and cook for another 20 minutes.

Just before the onions are ready put the rice, cumin and dried thyme into a saucepan and add twice the amount of boiling water to rice. Bring to the boil, stir once and leave on a low heat for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes take off the heat, remove the lid and place a tea towel over the pan for 10 minutes to absorb any excess moisture until you have light and fluffy fragrant rice.

When the onions are nicely caramelised but not burnt place them on some kitchen roll to drain whilst you prepare the lentils. Leave the empty onion pan on the heat; add the chopped garlic, lentils, half the chopped chilli and half of the coriander (save some chilli and coriander for garnish). Fry on a high heat for 5 minutes.

Spread the rice onto a platter, layer on the spicy lentils and then the onions. Garnish with the remaining coriander and chilli and season to your taste. Serve with a drizzle of natural yogurt and a good squeeze of lemon.

TIP: This recipe is great with either red or white onions and you can save time by using tinned lentils rather than cooking your own.