Photo by Faith Gorsky
You may remember a few weeks ago when I shared a recipe for date-filled cookies from An Edible Mosaic as part of a virtual potluck with several other bloggers. I’m excited to share that we’re all getting together again this weekend for an interactive Cook, Tweet & Eat event! On Saturday at 4pm EST we’ll be heading into the kitchen to prepare a recipe for lentil and bulgur pilaf with caramelized onions and we’ll be live tweeting along the way. We’d love for you to join the party and cook the recipe with us! You’ll find us at the hashtag #AnEdibleMosaic. Feel free to ask us cooking questions along the way and share your photos. After the event, Kitchen Play will be featuring some of yours photos in an event recap!
I’ve never participated in a live tweet event like this before so I’m really excited to see how it goes. The recipe is below if you’d like to cook along with us. Feel free to be creative! I’m substituting green lentils for brown since I already have them on hand. I’d love to see how others tweak the recipe.
I hope to see you there! You can RSVP here.
Photo by Faith Gorsky
Ingredients
- 1 1/3 cups (275 g) dried brown lentils (or 2 cans brown lentils, rinsed and drained)
- 6 cups (1.5 liters) water
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 large onions, quartered and thinly sliced
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 pods cardamom, cracked open
- 2 cloves
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 ½ teaspoons salt
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 cup (185 g) coarse-ground bulgur wheat
- 1½ cups (300 ml) boiling water
- Plain yogurt (optional, for serving)
Instructions
- Sort through the lentils to remove any small stones or pieces of dirt, and then rinse with cold water in a colander. Bring the rinsed lentils and the water to a boil in a lidded medium saucepan. Cover the saucepan, turn the heat down to a simmer, and cook until the lentils are tender but not mushy, about 20 to 30 minutes, stirring occasionally and adding more water as necessary so that they’re always immersed; strain.
- While the lentils cook, heat the oil and the butter in a large skillet over moderately-high heat; add the onion and sauté until completely softened but not yet browned, about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Transfer half the onion to a small bowl and set aside. Continue cooking the remaining onion until deep caramel in color, about 5 to 10 minutes, stirring occasionally and adding a splash of water as necessary if the onion starts to get too dark. Set aside.
- Put half a kettle of water on to boil. Transfer the sautéed onion (not the caramelized onion) to a medium saucepan. Add the bay leaf, cardamom, clove, cumin, cinnamon, salt, and pepper and cook 1 minute. Add the bulgur and cook 1 minute more, stirring constantly. Add the boiling water, turn the heat up to high, and bring to a rolling boil.
- Give the bulgur a stir, then cover the saucepan, turn the heat down to very low, and cook until tender, about 10 minutes (do not open the lid during this time). Turn the heat off and let the bulgur sit 10 minutes, then fluff with a fork and gently stir in the lentils. Taste and add additional salt, pepper, and olive oil if desired.
- Transfer to a serving dish and top with the caramelized onion. Serve with plain yogurt to spoon on top, if using.
Notes
Recipe courtesy of An Edible Mosaic: Middle Eastern Fare with Extraordinary Flair by Faith Gorsky (Tuttle Publishing; Nov. 2012); reprinted with permission.
What a deliciously tasty dish that looks! I think Faith’s book is brilliant and I’m so proud of her! :D
It’s such a fantastic cookbook, isn’t it?
I’ll definitely try to join in ! This pilaf also looks amazing! I think I’ll have to make extra caramelized onions though – that stuff is addicting!
I hope you do! It’ll be fun :)
What a great idea (and what a tasty dish to be making!)
I can’t wait to try it. I have all my ingredients ready for Saturday!
Looks delicious–all ingredients I have and enjoy! Caramelized onions are one of my favorite components, too. :)
They really do make everything better, don’t they?
Very interesting thing you´re doing on saturday. I will try to join. This salad is awesome, I love lentils and caramelized onions!
I hope to see you there! I think it’s going to be a lot of fun.
My family is Syrian and we eat this all the time!! One of my favorite dishes and my husbands too. Love all the spices in this version!
I’m so excited to try it.
What a fun idea! And this recipe looks fabulous, too!
All of Faith’s recipes look fantastic!
oh I like the idea. I love caramelized onion, it has such a lovely taste and adds a lot to a meal.
I agree. They’re such a healthy way to add flavor to a dish!
What a fun idea and this recipe looks amazing!
I’m pretty excited to take part in it. This will definitely be a new way to cook and bond with other bloggers and home cooks.
Sounds like a very interesting pilaf, I love the variety of spices used! Can’t wait to follow the live tweet :)
You should join us!
what a fun idea! this pilaf sounds delicious! I don’t think I can wait until Saturday! I bet your kitchen smelled amazing with those onions caramelizing!
I haven’t made it yet, that’s Faith’s picture. But I have all the ingredients and can’t wait to cook with everyone!
This sounds sooo good! I love Faith’s food!! It’s right up my Macedonian-alley! :)
If I can find a babysitter, I will definitely be there on Saturday cooking with you all!
Yay! I hope to see you there :)
Sounds like a lot of fun! I hope it goes well. The recipe looks really tasty with the caramelized onions.
Thanks! I think it’s going to be a lot of fun.
What a fun event! I love anything involving caramalized onions, but even more than that, Faith’s cookbook is one of my favorite additions to my home collection.
Isn’t it a great book? I’m loving all the recipes!
I’ve never heard of a live tweet before… sounds fun!
This recipe is so healthy I can’t even stand it. This will be a must try!!
I’ve never taken part in one before but it sounds like such a fun thing to do. I like that I’ll be cooking with people all over the country! (world?)
LOVE LOVE this combination! This looks incredible and I love the idea of a virtual pot luck!
Brown food is so hard to take pictures for me, but this pilaf looks absolutely delicious!
Sounds like a fun event, and I loooove those bowls! Yes, I know those two are unrelated. ;)
Tweet event! So fun :) and I could eat caramelized onions on everything.
How yummy I’ve never used bulgar…gasp…it’s time to channge that. Thanks for the inspiration.
Oh, yum!! A live Twitter cooking party sounds fabulous! I’ll definitely try and drop in. :D
This looks beautiful and I’m sure it’s delicious!
Everything tastes better with caramelized onions… thanks for the inspiration! :)
this looks so good and healthy
Beautiful bowl of pilaf! Sorry I missed your event-hopefully it was a big success and you will have another one soon! I have caramelized onions on my cooking to do list;-)
I was actually searching for a lentil recipe:) You posted here a great recipe, I will try to give this a try.
This is great! I love lentils and I’m always looking for new ways to make them besides in stews! Thank you for sharing such a lovely recipe. I’ll have to look into joining a Tweet party one of these days :)