Mujadara

Mujadara is a traditional Middle Eastern rice, lentil, and onion dish.  We've enjoyed it at many local Middle Eastern restaurants and have loved every version we've tried.  It was only a matter of time before we tried making it at home, and I am sure glad we did!  The complex flavors of this dish make it downright addictive, from the sweet caramelized onions to the toasted pinenuts and hints of cinnamon, it is the perfect combination of textures and flavors that makes you want to keep eating more!  

Mujadara

3 large sweet onions, thinly sliced
4-5 T grassfed butter
sprinkling of sea salt
1 1/2 c cooked basmati or long grain white rice
1 1/2 c cooked green or brown lentils
1/4 c pinenuts, toasted in a dry pan on high heat for 5 minutes
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cumin
pepper and salt to taste

1. Caramelize the onions by cooking them in the butter over medium-high heat for about 30 minutes.  Stir occasionally to make sure they don't burn.  You want them to cook down but not get too brown.  Part way through the cooking time, sprinkle them with a bit of salt.  
2. While the onions caramelize, toast your pine nuts by placing them in a small pan, turning the heat to high and toasting for 5 minutes, stirring the pine nuts often to make sure they don't burn.  They should start to brown a little and give off a nutty aroma.  At this point, remove them from the heat.  
3.  Once the onions are caramelized, stir the rice, lentils, pine nuts, cinnamon, cumin, salt and pepper into the onion mixture.  Then enjoy!

Honestly, you can use whatever quantities you want in this dish!  Have 3 cups of leftover white rice?  Throw it all in.  Love the taste of pinenuts?  Use 1/2 c instead of 1/4 c.  The quantities I used happened to work for us- we love the flavor of onions and wanted equal parts lentils and rice.  Don't like onions as much?  Only use 1 or 2.  Just don't leave anything out!  You'll lose some of the great complexity of the dish.  

Indian Chicken and Vegetable Stew

Rem and I discovered the original recipe for this stew when we started experimenting with Indian recipes at home a few years ago.  Indian is one of our favorite cuisines and we love to try new Indian recipes!  If you're not the adventurous type or think you don't like Indian cuisine, this stew might be a good stepping stone for you because the flavors are sweet and warming but not too overpowering.  

The original recipe is a vegetarian stew, but we like meat in all of our meals, so we added chicken to the mix.  We also subbed chicken stock for some of the water, replaced the red potatoes with sweet potatoes, and added peas.  I can imagine many other meat/vegetable substitutions would be great as well! Just keep that onion, garlic, and spice mixture! 

This is a great recipe to make for a big group OR if you want to have a lot of leftovers because it makes a LOT.  We never have enough leftover to freeze, but it would freeze well!  

Indian Chicken and Vegetable Stew

(Makes 10-12 generous servings)
Adapted from Eating Well

2 lbs. chicken thighs, baked with cumin, coriander, garlic powder, salt, pepper

2-3 T extra virgin olive oil
3 large onions, chopped
6 cloves garlic, minced

2 tsp cumin seeds
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp cardamom
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
10 good grinds black pepper

2 c unsalted chicken stock (I used Kitchen Basics brand)
2 large sweet potatoes, scrubbed and chopped into bite-sized pieces
3 cups baby carrots, chopped into bite-sized pieces
2 cups frozen peas
2 15 oz. can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
2 15 oz. cans fire roasted diced tomatoes

3/4 c fresh cilantro, chopped

whole milk, plain Greek yogurt for topping


The day before (or earlier in the day): bake chicken thighs then cut into bite-sized pieces.  Save for later use in the soup.  (You could also just use any kind of leftover chicken).  

To prep: Cut the onions (place in dutch oven), cut the sweet potatoes (leave on cutting board), and mix together the spices in a small bowl.  

Saute onions in large dutch oven or stockpot over medium high heat.  Cook until the onions begin to brown just a little.  Add garlic and saute 1-2 minutes.  Add all of the spices and saute 1 min longer.  

Next add the sweet potatoes, 2 c chicken stock and 2 c water.  Cover the pot and simmer for 15 minutes.

Then add the carrots, frozen peas, garbanzo beans, and tomatoes.  The pot will be very full at this point.  Cover the pot again and turn the heat down to medium-low.  Simmer for 1 hour, stirring occasionally, or until the carrots and sweet potatoes are cooked through.  

When ready to serve, stir in the cilantro.  This is great served with plain Greek yogurt on top too!  

Mexican Chicken, Rice and Beans

(Fair warning: this recipe is not paleo (it contains rice and beans), but it is gluten-free).  

This dish is inspired by my mom, who is an awesome cook and a master at throwing together crockpot recipes that always taste amazing.  Most of her crockpot recipes are not written down, and they're rarely the same each time she makes them, but she has made a dish like this one several times, and both Rem and I loved it every time!  

This one-pot meal is super delicious, EASY, and very filling.  It's great for when you're craving Mexican but don't want to take the time to prepare every component separately.  If you don't tolerate or like beans, you could easily add more veggies (peppers,  in their place or just leave them out.  I would imagine you could also replace the rice with riced cauliflower.  You could also change it up to make this an Indian dish rather than Mexican by swapping the spices below for turmeric, cumin, coriander, garlic, ginger, and curry powder, and swapping the beans for chickpeas.  Let me know if you try out any variations on this recipe!    

Mexican Chicken, Rice and Beans

2 1/2 lb uncooked chicken breasts or thighs, fresh (or frozen then thawed)

32 oz. can diced tomatoes, with juice

1/2 c salsa (I used Mrs. Renfro's habenero salsa- a super hot salsa!)

1 onion, diced

Sprinkle liberally over the top: 

cumin

garlic powder

pepper

oregano

Cook the above ingredients on HIGH in the crockpot for 4 hours (anywhere between 3 and 6 hours would work).

Then add:

2 cans drained and rinsed black beans

1 c uncooked basmati rice (I used Trader Joe's brand; you could use ANY type of rice for this)

Continue to cook on HIGH for 2 hours.  

Enjoy!