Mujadara (Middle Eastern Lentils & Rice)

1 cup Great Value Lentils, dry
4 tbsp Cumin Seed, Ground
1 tbsp Coriander, ground
1 tsp Cinnamon, ground
1/2 tsp Chili powder
4 cloves Garlic, peeled and pressed
1/2 Spanish (yellow) onion, medium--diced
2 tsp kosher Salt
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
3/4 cup cooked spinach
Caramelized onions
Cooked brown rice

The original recipe uses a bunch of cilantro or parsley leaves instead of cooked spinach. Feel free to use those fresh herbs (not cooked) finely chopped instead--one bunch is fine, and use it as a topping.

Kosher salt with medium to coarse grind has approx. half the sodium as table salt. I have not in this recipe, but if you wish to reduce the sodium even more, only use half the amount of salt called for in this recipe or use a salt substitute.

Using your rice cooker's instructions, start cooking brown rice. This generally takes 45 minutes. (You may use plain brown rice cooked in water, but I like to cook mine in low sodium chicken broth. Both vegetarian and chicken broth are available at Walmart now for the same price, but the chicken used to be cheaper.)

At the same time, soak your lentils in 4 cups of water for 20 minutes. This will speed up the cooking time, instead of 30 minutes it will only take 20 minutes to cook your lentils. [You can skip this step. It will just take a little longer to cook your lentils.]

Mix your spices and pressed garlic together in a small bowl. Heat olive oil in a heavy-bottomed large pan. Add spice mix and toast lightly, for one minute. Next add diced onion to pan and stir to coat. Saute for about 10 minutes; stir occasionally so onions don't stick to the pan and the spice mix doesn't burn. Remove from heat.

If you soaked the lentils, drain off the water in a sieve. Add the lentils and enough water to cover, plus an extra cup of water to the spiced onion pan. Add 1-2 tsp of salt. Return to the burner, cover with a lid, and raise heat to medium high until the lentils boil. Then reduce heat and cook for 20-30 minutes until most of the water has evaporated (keep an eye on this, you may need to add more water to complete the cooking time). Once the rice and lentils are cooked through--not crunchy but not mushy--cooking is completed. Stir the cooked spinach into the lentils until heated through.

Serve lentils on hot rice topped with caramelized onion. Nutritional information is for lentils only.

Serving Size: 4 generous servings--3/4 cup servings. An extra 1/4 cup will be leftover.