Mujadara Hamra
If you are trying to find ways to come up with the best lentil dish, then you should make “mujadara hamra”. A specialty of south of Lebanon, frugal, healthy, delicious, vegan and ingredients are most probably found in your household. Yes, the dish is cheap to make as lentils, onions and bulgur make up the bulk of it – southern Lebanese cuisine relies heavily on bulgur. Ladies there take pride in mastering mujadara hamra. The end result should be firm, separate and never sticky and clumped together with a brown dark color tint. An authentic mujadara hamra needs no seasoning other than salt, all the flavors come together with perfect harmony! And did I mention that it is a very good source of protein and fibers!! A recipe that deserves to be kept in your regular recipe rotation!!
Mujadara Hamra (Video)
As a kid, all kinds of mujadara were totally unappreciated! How wrong I was!! It took me a while after marriage to consider making mujadara hamra!!, I thought, back then, that this one something only experts could master. A few years passed by, I stepped inside my kitchen, rolled my sleeves up and decided to stay with my roots and give it a try. The end result was not a disaster, but not so appealing and the color was far away from brown, but as I tasted it, I realized that it wasn’t as bad as it looks; having watched my mother cooking mujadara hamra, I knew I must have browned the onions further more. A few more tries, and I was nominated in my husband’s family, as the best mujadara hamra maker! Whoohoo!
Watch the video tutorial to learn how to make an authentic “Mujadara Hamra”
Caramelizing the onions to a dark brown tint is really the only fussy part of this recipe, but so worth learning the technique, since those deep caramelized onions will perk up and liven out the flavor of the “Mujadara Hamra”; just be aware how to deep cook the caramelized onions since the color and flavor of the dish heavily rely on them. Watch the video tutorial, above!
Serve it with yogurt on the side, fattoush , Middle Eastern salad and wild oregano salad and you’ve got a certifiably wonderful lunch or dinner.
- One trick worth mentioning is not to overcook the lentils when boiled alone – you don’t need a mushy mujadara.
- Traditionally, mujadara hamra is made with brown lentils, but it is still doable with green lentils!
Red onions are highly recommended in making “Mujadara Hamra
Onions at this stage start wilting!
Onions here starts to caramelize,but they need more time to put on color!Watch the video tutorial to learn the perfect color of the onion!
When I make “mujadara hamra”, I be sure to double the quantity so there would be leftovers to be enjoyed later!
if I could only eat one lentil dish, ever — it would certainly be “Mujadara Hamra”. Though mujadara hamra is made of humble ingredients, including lentils, onions and bulgur, together they turn into something glorious. It’s definitely a case of the whole being greater than the sum of the parts. Watch the video tutorial above to learn visually the trips and tricks!
- Author:Hadia Zebib Khanafer,
- Prep Time: 40 minutes
- Cooking time: 30minutes
- Serving: Makes 4-5 persons
INGREDIENTS:
- 2 cup brown lentils
- 1 cup coarse bulgur
- 10 medium-sized onions, finely chopped
- 1 cup of olive oil and canola oil, mixed together
- 6 1/2 cups water
- 2 teaspoon salt, or to taste
DIRECTIONS:
- Visually inspect the lentils for any small stones. Wash and place in pot. Add 6 1/2 cups of water, bring to a boil, cover the pot and simmer over low heat about 20 minutes or until lentils are cooked but not overly soft. Drain in a colander and save its liquid.
- Heat the olive and canola oil in a saucepan over medium-low heat, cook the onions for about ten minutes, stirring every few minutes.
- Continue to cook and scarpe until onions are very dark brown in color, very crucial for the end result of the dish, the success of this dish lies in this step
- Add the drained liquid from the lentils to the onions and let it simmer for one minute.
- Add the cooked lentils, salt and the coarse bulgur slowly stirring the mixture.
- Cover the saucepan and cook over very low heat for 25-30 minutes.
- Serve with pita bread, radishes, fattoush, Middle Eastern salad, or some plain yogurt!
- My favorite way to enjoy leftovers of mujadara Hamra is wrapped in Arabic bread / Pita bread or saj bread with sliced radishes, pickles and tomato wedges; a wrap that walks the balance between crunchy and creamy texture in one bite. Heavenly!
If you make this recipe, share your pictures on Facebook! I would love to see your creations!Hashtag them #Hadia's Lebanese Cuisine
Looking for more enticing lentil recipes, here are some great recipes worth trying
Subscribe to Our Newsletter
17 Responses to Mujadara Hamra
Leave a Reply
Be Social
About Chef
Hadia Zebib
I am Hadia, the face behind Hadia’s Lebanese Cuisine. I grew up in Beirut Lebanon and I currently reside in Kinshasa, Congo with my husband and my three adorable sons, ...
Read more about this chef..
Hi, and welcome to our blog!
I am Hadia, the blogger behind Hadia’s Lebanese Cuisine.
After a long journey of writing recipes, food styling and photographing (all in preparation for my cookbook, ‘Hadia – Lebanese Style Recipes’ , it is time to devote my attention to food blogging. With time, I have turned my passion for cooking into a career, I now enjoy taking pictures of the food as much as I enjoy cooking. Here on our blog , we feature scrumptious Lebanese, Middle Eastern and international recipes.
Nancy, it is best made with the small lentils, but it is still doable with the green lentil! I had madeit several times and it worked well!
I am so excited to try this recipe. I actually got a job as a cook in a middle eastern restaurant in college in hopes of learning how to make this. Unfortunately, the job was just using the microwave….
The bulgur. Do you rinse it? What grain size? It comes in course, medium, and fine.
The third bullet point is an excellent cliff hanger.
Hi Eric! You need to use coarse bulgur here, and no need to rinse it! I hope you enjoy it as much as we do! Xo xo!
loved the recipe because the ingredients are perfectly measured and made my mujadara closest to my grandmas!! the key is to not go low on onions, and put the right amount of oil for the onions! Since i live in germany i dont know which lentils to use, i use brown lentils but they are small are these the right lentils? or i should use the bigger lentils that have a slightly green color ?
Many thanks, love the blog!
How awesome to read your comment Mounia! As much as “mujadara hamra” looks like something easy to make, it does take extra care and precision! The good thing is that you are already aware of how to caramelize the onions here! And yes, the brown small lentils are ideal to make mujadara hamra. Welcome dear, and I hope you will try even more recipes on the blog. Xo xo!
I have now attempted to make Mujadara Hamra 3 times! Yesterday was my best attempt so far, but I am still finding it difficult to make the color as dark as I’d like. I’m not Lebanese; I’m American. But this dish is a favorite of mine since trying it back in 1998 and all restaurants near me either serve mujadara with rice…no good for me! There were some that are no longer in business who served great mujadara hamra…very dark brown and delicious! That is what I want to make.
I used small brown lentils (Palouse Pardina), size 3 bulgur (Duru Brown), and finally did a good/great job caramelizing the finely chopped white onions. When I added the saved lentil water to the caramelized onions, there wasn’t very much fluid and the lentils weren’t quite par-cooked. The end result tastes good, but is not dark brown and doesn’t have the same consistency as the ones I’ve had that are so good.
What am I doing wrong???
Thank you!
Hi Cindy, I tell you, it takes a while even for a Lebanese to master making mujadara hamra. The only tricky part is in caramelizing the onions since flavor and color heavily rely on them. Most probably you need to brown your onions a bit more. In other words onion should be dark brown, just a degree before burning. I would say, it is important to brown the onions over low heat (uncovered) until you achieve the dark brown tint, and it is important to stir frequently for even browning. I echo you it is a great dish, with humble ingredients you end up with great flavors. I guess the coming time the color would be better if you brown more your onions. Happy eating!
Thanks so much for your reply, Hadia! This is what I’ve read over and over…make sure the onions are dark brown but not burnt. So I will try again as I love this dish when prepared properly! I will also use more onions the next time as they seem to have gotten lost in the mix of lentils and bulgur. I believe i used medium heat, so I’ll switch to low heat and wait…and wait…and wait! LOL This is a dish worth waiting for, after all. Also, I was considering using black lentils (dark!), but I believe that would change the flavor. Is this so? (I’ve never tasted black lentils, but I do have them on hand.) And…I used only olive oil, not 1/2 canola oil, and am wondering how much of a difference that will make. In any case, I thank you for your reply and wish you a great weekend. Please wish me luck and thanks again!
Hi Cindy, so happy to see insisting on mastering mujadara hamra, and so happy you know the worth of this humble yet delicious. You can use light olive oil but not extra virgin to avoid burning the onions. And thanks for sharing your picture on Facebook, your fourth attempt looks perfection in terms of color.
Thank you, Hadia! I hope you and your family are enjoying your weekend! I am not done trying to make it to “Expert” level, but I sincerely appreciate your comments and support with making this delicious dish. If/when I become an Expert at this one, my next one to try will be Maghmour, a meal that a local restaurant used to serve only as a special…delicious, too! But my favorite meal of all is Mujadara Hamra. So yummy that I was willing to take cooking lessons in order to learn it, but you’ve made that unnecessary for me. Thank you so much for this blog, your Facebook page, and your kind support!
My pleasure Cindy. As I mentioned before, it could take a while even for a Lebanese to master mujadara hamra. Most probably your fifth attempt would be thee best. So happy to know that my explanation was helpful in a way. And I promise you will love maghmour. Xoxo
Hello Hadia
Just wondering about the 3 cups of water to boil lentils and then use that same water for cooking but the ingredients list 6 1/2 cups water so I’m left wondering what about the remainder water. Also I assumed #2 burghul is what was required since #3 takes much longer to cook?
Hi Amina, it is 6 1/2 cups of water, edditing mistake, thank you for pointing that, all pilafs use coarse bulgur which is typically referred to as #3 grade., and Mujadara hamra is no exception.
Hello Hadia, thank you so much for the recipe, will make tomorrow for the first time. But writing to you because couldn’t you put the measurements in grams please? Such a headache to try to convert cups. If possible, otherwise still enjoying. Best regards from Italy.
Caroline
Onion caramelizing challenge accepted! 🙂 First effort today, but the onions were not so dark as you show because i was a bit afraid of scorching them, but it’s all very tasty in any case! This could be a weekly favorite!
That’s great to hear. I am happy you liked 👍