Mujadara: One Pot or Two In this week's A Good Appetite column and in the accompanying video, I refer to the Middle Eastern lentils and rice dish called mujadara as a one-pot meal. That's how I learned how to make it: by cooking the lentils and rice together in the pot. But I've come across other recipes that call for cooking the lentils and rice separately before combining them for serving. In this case, you'd need two pots. The advantage of using two pots is control. Lentils and rice have different cooking times (lentils generally take longer). Simmering them separately ensures they will both be perfectly cooked. In the one-pot method, you need to compensate for the different cooking times. To do so, I soak my lentils in tap water for about 10 minutes or so before adding them to the pot with the sautéed rice. Here is my recipe. I serve my mujadara drizzled with hot sauce to add a little acid slap. Yogurt serves the same purpose without the heat, but with a nice, cooling creaminess. So feel free to substitute if you like. Or use them both. It's not traditional, but very tasty.