Skip to main content
Main

Lentils with Rice

A simple dish of boiled lentils combined with cooked rice, sautéed onions, butter, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Lentils and onion match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,221 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Lentils with Rice

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the rice

  1. Wash the rice.

  2. Add the rice to a large kettle of boiling water.

  3. Boil rapidly for 30 minutes.

  4. Drain the rice in a colander.

  5. Let it sit at the oven door for 10-15 minutes to dry.

Fry the onion

  1. In a frying pan, melt the butter over medium heat.

  2. Add the sliced onion and cook until golden brown.

Combine and serve

  1. Boil the lentils as directed in the previous recipe.

  2. Add the lentils and rice to the pan.

  3. Stir over the heat for 15 minutes.

  4. Season with salt and pepper.

  5. Serve very hot.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Lentils + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,221 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Lentils + ricetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together256 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Rice + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,433 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Rice + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,379 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Lentils
Provide protein-rich body and a hearty, substantial texture to the dish.
Rice
Forms the bulk of the dish and absorbs flavour while adding a soft, starchy texture.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, helping the onion brown and carrying flavour through the dish.
Onion
Browns in the butter to add sweetness and savoury aroma.

The step that matters

Drying the rice after boiling. Letting drained rice rest in gentle warmth lets surface moisture evaporate, so the grains stay separate instead of turning sticky when combined with the lentils.

Swap the lentils

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, butter, onion, pepper):

  1. Black-eyed peafits better
  2. Sesamefits better
  3. Beansfits better
  4. Lentilsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, butter, onion, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

You might also like

Rice FrittersRice Fritters84 recipesSteamed RiceSteamed Rice48 recipesRice Griddle CakesRice Griddle Cakes28 recipesRice and Cheese CasseroleRice and Cheese Casserole23 recipes