Lentil And Caramelised Onion Mujadara

Mujadara is peasant food that survives on technique rather than ingredients: lentils, rice, onions and oil, and nothing else of substance.

Forty minutes of patient onion frying is what separates a good one from a plate of beige.

Mujadara has four ingredients and one of them takes forty minutes. The onions are not a garnish, they are the dish, and they cannot be hurried.

Lentils go in first and rice second, because lentils that are already tender turn to paste in the time rice needs.