middle-eastern

Brown Rice and Lentil Pilaf

| roeliaschoeman

Updated January 2019

It is great when we reach a stage where we are actually craving healthy food!  I got home last night, and my menu for the day went out the door, because I really wanted LENTILS.  I often get cravings like that, especially for lentils.

The first time I had lentils was years ago, like really – YEARS ago, while I was still in school.  And without giving my age away, I am referring to the… uhm… 80’s.  We lived in Namibia (then called South West Africa), and there weren’t the luxuries of after school care, so as kids we went to the nearby German hostel to have an afternoon meal, a short nap and time to get some homework done.  There I was introduced to a few dishes and ingredients that wasn’t normally served at home.  Like the most divine, thick lentil soup with rings of bratwurst cut into it. Delicious!  And that is, in short, where I developed my love for lentils.  Like sushi, I crave it at least once every two weeks!

I guess this isn’t a pure pilaf, seeing that your traditional pilaf is a rice based dish, so it normally contains quite a bit more rice. But, for the purpose of the eating plan I am following, the ratio rice to lentils is a bit closer together.  Anyway, here we go!

40g raw brown rice (I used Tastic’s brown rice and sundried tomato)
80g raw lentils

Note:  If you want to save some time, and don’t mind cheating a bit – you can precook the lentils and brown rice.

Then, fry in 10ml lemon infused olive oil in and oven proof pan.

Add:

  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 200g brown mushrooms, chopped
  • Mix it all together with a teaspoon of Nomu’s Moroccan Rub plus salt and pepper to taste.  Woolies also makes a delicious Moroccan Rub – or you can make your own mix with cumin, smoked paprika and ground coriander.
  • Add 125 – 250ml chicken stock and put in pre-heated oven at 180C

Pilaf

Check every 20 minutes and add more stock if needed.  Total cooking time is about 45 minutes, or until the lentils and rice are soft.

Serve with fresh coriander!  🙂

Pilaf (3)

Serve 1 – a large portion!

This should work well as a salad if cooked down!

Tip: When I cook brown rice and lentils I always cook extra to be portioned and frozen for later!  A great time saver! 🙂