One of the newest super foods to sweep the world is Mujadara. Actually since it has been around for a long time, it is hardly new but my prediction is that it will be the new and much much better replacement for the overrated quinoa. This discusses how we happened upon Mujadara, and how you can cook it too, with recipe and instructions.

Mujadara has to be put up there as one of the super foods – a Lebanese super food. It is a mix of both lentils, which are a recognised super food and brown rice, whose superfood benefits are well documented. Besides all of that superfluous information, the dish tastes exceptionally good.

What is Mujadara?

Mujadara is a Lebanese rice dish which is made with lentils, brown rice, onions, and garlic. It is flavoured with hints of cumin, cayenne, and cinnamon. Much like a good paella, the key is getting the right crunch factor when cooking it or so the chef told us. Regardless it is really very good. My breakfast contained this superfood Mujadara along with eggs, mushrooms, lamb, hummus, yogurt and tomatoes. This was a good meal. The Mujudara was exceptional on its own and with some eggs juices and mushrooms seriously good.

A word about my opinions on superfoods

By my calculations, a dish containing both lentils and brown rice has to be one of the super superfoods. Now I am not a big advocate of this label “superfoods”. I will put it out there now; I do not like the superfood quinoa. I have to think before I pronounce quinoa, because it looks like it should say ‘qwin-wah’ instead it is keen-wah, so immediately it is not off to a good start. If I have to spend the rest of the week picking it out of my teeth after a having wanky salad, then this makes me less than enamoured with it. So keen-wah, you are a ridiculous superfood. You didn’t even taste that great.

In fact there are many super foods that really no one overly likes. If I see poorly done kale again I will scream .. well pretty much anything that is on trend at the moment. Kohlrabi and acai berries – over you both.

A professional reason why Mujadara is the new superfood.

I like it. Simple. So if I am even going to pretend to follow the hordes with a superfood then I am choosing Mujadara because it tastes good, and I have made it since. We discovered this food as we went for our daily walk, which anyone following us on instagram knows is our justification for a coffee and/or food at the end.

We like this Lebanese café for a number of reasons. The coffee is good and the staff is lovely and it has a good feel about it. The food is mostly really good, and the Mujadara is excellent.

How to Make Mujadara

Ingredients

Serves: 4

• 4 cups vegetable stock
• 1 cup brown basmati rice
• 1 cup brown lentils, rinsed
• salt, freshly ground pepper
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 large onions, thinly sliced, plus more for serving
• garlic
• 2 teaspoons cumin seeds, cayenne, and cinnamon
• 1 cup fresh mixed herbs – mint, parsley, and coriander/cilantro
• Lemon juice

Preparation

• Bring stock to a boil in a large saucepan.
• Add rice, and lentils, return to a boil.
• Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until rice and lentils are tender, 35–45 minutes, and get a crunch on the bottom
• Remove pan from heat and let sit 5–10 minutes
• Season with salt and pepper.
• Set rice mixture aside.
• Heat oil in a pan. Add onions, garlic and cumin seeds and cook until golden brown.
• Add cayenne, and cinnamon
• Mix onion mixture, and herbs into rice mixture; season with salt and pepper and lemon juice.

So if we are going to have a [clickToTweet tweet=”newest superfood to sweep the world is Mujadara” quote=”newest superfood to sweep the world, then please make it something that at least tastes good… like Mujadara”]