I have an earlier version of this recipe kicking around and wanted to update now that I've got executive dysfunction AND a toddler. That's double not able to attend to my cooking, so I shifted things around and made this more of a dump-and-go recipe.

Mujadara is a vegan, middle-eastern dish of spiced lentils. It's name means "pockmarked" which is in reference to the rice looking pockmarked by the lentils. The spice profile used here is lebanese because yum. In the Notes section, I'll offer other sources of other spice profiles from other countries and cultures.

Ingredients

• 1 cup lentils; "red" or "split" not recommended
• 2 TBSP olive oil [substitute any other kind of oil]
• 1 onion
• 2 TBSP caramelized onions, optional
• 4 cloves garlic, rough chopped
• 2 tsp cumin, ground or whole
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon, ground
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper or chili powder, to taste
• 1/2 tsp turmeric, to taste
• 1/4 tsp ginger, ground, to taste [substitute 1 TBSP fresh ginger]
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 small lemon's worth of citrus zest [substitute 1 TBSP lemon juice]
• 4.5 cups water: 2.5 cold and 2 boiling
• 1 cup rice

Ingredient notes: I used cheap lentils labeled just "lentils" and grapefruit zest the first time making this dish and it turned out to be delicious so this dish is very forgiving.

Materials

• mixing bowl
• tea kettle
• fine mesh strainer
• knife and cutting board
• measuring cups and spoons
• stirring paddle
• Instant Pot

Method

1. Put the kettle on and boil the water (2 c).
2. While you are boiling the water, skin your onion (1), chop it in half, and then cut those halves into thin rainbows (or smiles, if you'd rather), putting the onions into your inner pot as you go.
3. Peel your garlic (4 cloves) and rough chop the cloves which then get added to the inner pot. By now your water should be boiling.
4. Get out a mixing bowl with capacity for at least a whole grapefruit/3 cups. Put the dry lentils (1 c) into that bowl. Pour your boiling water (2 c, boiling) over them and set it aside.
5. Back to the Instant Pot's inner pot, now. Add your oil (2 TBSP) and spices: cumin (2 tsp), cinnamon (1/2 tsp), cayenne pepper or chili powder (1/4 tsp, to taste), turmeric (1/2 tsp, optional), ginger (1/4 tsp, optional), salt (1 1/2 tsp), and citrus zest (1 small lemon's worth). Give everything a good stir with the stirring paddle.
6. Put the lid on your Instant Pot, set the vent position to SEAL, and set it to PRESSURE COOK on high pressure for five minutes. There might not seem like enough (or any) water in there to pressurize the pot, but #trustUrvashi.
7. Once the five minutes of cook time is over, allow the pot to NATURALLY RELEASE for an additional 15 minutes, minimum. Depending on what else is going on in your life you can go longer. If you are impatient, at the end of that 15 minutes, QUICK RELEASE any remaining pressure.
8. Open your Instant Pot's lid and add the rest of your water (2.5 cups) to the inner pot in addition to what has sweated out of the onions.
9. Take the soaked lentils and drain them.
   If you want, and I wanted because I am all about /r/NoScrapLeftBehind, drain them into a larger mixing bowl to reserve the liquid which you can then toss in your freezer with a label of "vegetable stock/broth". (There's a reason I had you use exactly 2 cups of water for this and that is because most recipes that call for vegetable stock or vegetable broth also call for it in multiples of 2 cups. Future You, you're welcome!)
10. Now add the rice (1 c), and put on the lid and set the knob to SEALED.
11. Press the PRESSURE COOK button and adjust the time to 11 minutes. We are going to let this naturally release, so grab a book or an hour long television show and relax.
    (if you've been natural releasing for over 15 minutes, you can then do a quick release, if you are impatient)
12. The pin has dropped and you're hungry. Grab a bowl and spoon up some delicious goodness. Garnish with caramelized onions (2 TBSP). Yum!

Notes

I promised you alternative spice profiles from other cultures and you won't be disappointed. I present to you: Egypt, Israel, Syria, Jordan

Bibliography. Since this is a rework of an earlier recipe, I'll just mention what I added. Firstly, I used knowledge gained in my caramelized onions recipe to help make this more dump-and-go. And I learned a whole lot about mujadara including what language it is in, what it means, and that it is also a Jewish dish from Tory Avey who also supplied the Israeli spice profile. All spice profile links above were, of course, consulted to be authentic representations of their respective cultures.