My oldest sister, Tinha, and I were roommates for a while when I lived in São José dos Campos in Brazil. One of the dishes she prepared which I liked the most was her arroz com lentilhas. Upon returning from our week vacation in Toronto where we ate out every day, all I could think of was homemade comfort food to feed my soul. Tinha’s arroz com lentilha came to mind immediately.
arroz com lentilhas e cebola AKA rice with onion and lentil
I’ve made this dish with many variations before but my favorite continues to be this one. Prepare to cry a bit while cutting the onions! They release a volatile sulfur based gassy compound that hits your eyes and reacts with the water there. In turn your eyes produce more water (tears) to get rid of the irritating chemical. But there’s no getting around it. Plus, I love onions! Clarence, our English bulldog, perhaps is smarter. Whenever I’m in the kitchen cutting onions, he vanishes to the safety of the bedroom!
arroz com lentilhas e cebola AKA rice with onion and lentil
2½ cups onions (preferably white) cut into thin slivers
½ cup canola and extra virgin olive oil combined together
1½ cup red un-hulled lentils, rinsed
1 cup non-aged basmati rice, rinsed
Kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper
Place lentils in a heavy bottom pan. Add about 2½ cups of water. Cover and bring to a boil then reduce temperature to medium and simmer for about 18 minutes. Add rice, salt and fresh black pepper to lentils. Stir and cover. Turn temperature to low and cook for another 12-13 minutes. Remove from heat but keep the pan covered tightly for another 8 minutes so rice finishes cooking.
Add onions, a sprinkle of salt and about three fourths of the oil to a skillet and sauté onions until browned and reduced to about a third of the original volume. It will take about the same length of time that the lentils require for cooking so you can do these two steps simultaneously.
folding carmelized onion into lentil rice
Uncover cooked lentil rice mix and fluff with a fork. To avoid breaking rice carefully fold in browned onions. Transfer to a serving platter and drizzle with remaining oil. Yumm!
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This sounds really good. I’m going to try it using brown basmati rice to make it healthy!
Hi Nancy, I’ve made it with brown basmati in the past it it tastes equally good. The texture however is a bit different. Thanks for visiting weirdcombinations.
Cheers,
Heguiberto
This dish is almost identical to the one we make in Lebanon called mudardara; however the rice used to be the small fat Egyptian one. I love it and so does everybody here.
Joumana,
The Lebanese population in Brazil is huge the states of São Paulo, Rio and Minas Gerais received most of the Lebanese migrants in the last century. Our cuisine has been influenced by your cuisine which is a great healthy thing 😉 I am going to try this dish next time using Egyptian rice.
Heguiberto
Love this dish, in lebanon we call it mdardra… one of my favorite dishes with the caramelized onions!!
Hi Cherine,
Thanks for the name correct name on this dish. It is my absolute favorite dish too. The sweetness and smokiness of the caramelized onions melds perfectly well with the earthy flavor lentils have.
Heguiberto
Hegui, mal posso esperar pra experimentar essa receita! Amo basmanti rice e lentilhas. It looks delicious. Btw – o que eh “un- hulled” lentilhas? Algum tipo especial?
Bjos!!
Oi Lili,
Eu também amo esse prato!
A letilha vermelha é normalmente usada sem a casquinha marrom externa, partidas ao meio nas sopas ‘dal’ Indianas.
Esse arroz com lentilhas vermelhas inteiras fica com sabor mais delicado do que quando feito com as letilhas comuns. Un-hulled seria a lentilha inteira com a casquinha.
beijins
Heguiberto
This sounds great and the kind of dish we love to eat. Bein an Indian, we eat lentils and rice everyday and this is an interesting twist! Loved this.