Prep 20 min - cook 40 min - serves 5
Persian-Style Daliya with Lentils and Dates
Grain and lentils layered with sweet dried fruit and caramelised onions, borrowing the sweet-savoury logic of adas polo.
Before you cook
Persian rice-and-lentil dishes rest on the tension between sweet fruit and savoury spice. The caramelised onions are what carry that balance here.
Cook the onions until properly dark, well past golden. Pale onions leave the dish tasting flat where it should taste rich.
Method
Fry the sliced onions slowly in the oil until deeply caramelised, about twenty minutes.
Set most of the onions aside, leaving a little in the pan.
Add the cinnamon and cumin to the pan and stir briefly until fragrant.
Add the daliya and toast it in the spiced oil for two minutes.
Rinse the lentils and add them along with the water and salt.
Bring to the boil, then cover and drop to the lowest possible heat.
Cook for eighteen minutes without lifting the lid at all.
Rest off the heat, still covered, for a further ten minutes.
Warm the dates or raisins briefly in a dry pan to soften them.
Fluff the grain and fold through most of the onions and fruit, saving some to top.
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