Scuttlebutt
Sara Bonisteel, Caroline Fidanza, Rebecca Collerton
115 ratings with an average rating of 4 out of 5 stars
115
2 hours (plus 1 day, if making pickled beets)
Adas Polo ba Khorma (Persian Lentil Rice With Dates)
Updated March 11, 2024
- Total Time
- 45 minutes
- Prep Time
- 10 minutes
- Cook Time
- 35 minutes
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
Yield:6 to 8 servings
- 1cup green lentils, rinsed
- 2tablespoons ground cinnamon
- ½teaspoon ground turmeric
- 2tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon kosher salt (such as Diamond Crystal), more as needed
- 2½cups basmati rice, rinsed and drained
- 1cup chopped fresh herbs, such as cilantro, dill, mint or a combination
- 1cup plain whole-milk yogurt, for serving (optional)
- 6tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil or clarified butter, plus more for serving (see Tip)
- 2yellow onions, finely diced
- 12fresh Medjool dates, pitted and diced
For the Rice
For the Onion-date Mixture
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (8 servings)
526 calories; 12 grams fat; 2 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 8 grams monounsaturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 95 grams carbohydrates; 8 grams dietary fiber; 27 grams sugars; 13 grams protein; 473 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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- Step 1
Bring 4 cups water to boil in a medium saucepan over high heat. Add the lentils, cinnamon, turmeric and 2 tablespoons salt. Stir well to combine, breaking up any clumps. Cover and reduce heat to medium. Simmer until the lentils are cooked but still have a bite, 7 to 10 minutes. Drain lentils and set aside.
- Step 2
Using the same medium saucepan, bring 2 cups water to a boil. Add the rice, cooked lentils, 1 teaspoon salt and enough hot water to cover the rice by 1 inch. Cook, uncovered, until all the water is absorbed, 10 to 14 minutes.
- Step 3
Reduce heat to low, wrap the pot lid in a clean kitchen towel, cover the pan and let the rice steam for 10 minutes. Fluff rice with a fork; taste and add salt if needed.
- Step 4
While the rice is cooking, prepare the onion-date mixture: In a skillet, heat 4 tablespoons oil or clarified butter until hot but not smoking. Add onions and a pinch of salt, and cook until the onions are dark golden and a little crispy, 9 to 14 minutes. Transfer onions to a bowl and return the skillet to the heat.
- Step 5
Add remaining 2 tablespoons oil to the skillet and, once hot, add the dates and warm them through, 1 to 2 minutes. Stir dates into the bowl with the onions.
- Step 6
To serve, spoon a layer of rice and lentils into a warmed serving bowl, then add a layer of onion-date mixture and sprinkle with chopped herbs. Keep alternating layers, ending with the onion-date mixture and a final sprinkling of herbs. Drizzle with more oil and top with a dollop of yogurt if you like.
Tip
- If you don't have clarified butter but would like a buttery flavor, you can use 2 tablespoons unsalted butter to warm the dates, and then top the dish with more melted butter. Be sure to use olive oil (or clarified butter) for the onions or they might burn.
Private Notes
Leave a Private Note on this recipe and see it here.
Cooking Notes
Maryam
We discard the water from the lentils because it darkens the rice and starch from the legume makes the basmati rice turn into mush. We can add a mixture of equal ratios pinch of clove + cardamom + cinnamon on top of the rice while it cooks by steaming. Also, in my mother’s traditional Persian cooking, we didn’t use tumeric but rather saffron for its aroma is more pleasant and color is much red/orange. The difference between tumeric and saffron is quite noticeable.
Jane Cutter
Curious as to why one throws away the water used to boil the lentils which has the spices in it. Can't imagine much spice flavor then gets into the rice. In making Palestinian mjedra you add the rice to the water with the lentils in it and then cook them together, adding additional water if needed.
Joanne Weaver
Not a note but a question. When...and why...are recipes now calling for Kosher salt instead of the more readily available and inexpensive table salt? The salt home cooks managed to successfully cook with for years.
Sally
Wow, two tablespoons of salt and two tablespoons of cinnamon? I made this and used no where near those amounts. I also cooked the lentils and rice TOGETHER. Easier and no problems with the result. Very tasty dish that I will make again.
Bougeotte
Out here in the country, where there's no DoorDash, we do SlapDash. So, as usual, I'm going to tweak this to my supply: leftover brown basmati rice, canned lentils, the stemmy remainders of bunches of cilantro and parsley, plus all the spices. Oddly, I do have ghee and about six medjool dates...
J. Beem-Miller
NYT does this primarily to avoid issues with differences in density among salt brands. This can have serious consequences when measuring salt amounts by volume (I know from experience). Here's a link to a Melissa Clark article about it: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/02/dining/salt.html
RL
You're wrapping the *lid* (not the pan itself). Putting a thinnish layer of towel between the lid and the rice/lentils in the pot blocks off the moisture from the lid, keeping it from dripping into the mixture (& resulting in soggy/gloppy sadness). I do this towel/lid trick for many grains (like quinoa) in the final low heat "steam" stage - it makes a big difference.
CJ
Followed recipe as is except added cardamom, saffron, and a dash of to both lentil cooking water AND a dash of cardamom, clove and nutmeg and a few strands of saffron to rice water. Also added a few apricots and barberries to dates, and an extra shallot to onions. Topped with toasted pistachios and almond slices. Used dill, mint and cilantro. Result was outstanding and a big hit with guests.
JS
Kosher salt is easier to hold/sprinkle into recipes. You can use table salt, but halve the amount.
Drake Baer
This is my favorite type of NYT recipe, with hints for varying the recipe substantially. As ever, I look forward to reading reader comments on successful riffs I wouldn’t have thought of.
LGS
I recommend an alternative recipe in "New Food for Life" - you par-boil the rice as you always do in making this kind of Persian rice, but then, after adding a mixture of yogurt/oil at the bottom of the pot, you combine all the ingredients in the pot, layering them with the rice, cover with towel and lid and steam for about 1 hour - fantastic - I serve this at parties all the time and it disappears.
senator john b. blutarsky
re: kosher salt question. kosher salt does not contain iodine so it has a bit of a different taste profile. and since it is larger grained than conventional table salt, a larger amount by volume is needed for the equivalent amount of sodium chloride that is in table salt. p.s. kosher salt and table salt typically cost about the same, and both are quite inexpensive unless you are buying a "gourmet" product.
Erie
Really great recipe! The spice was just right, if you make it as written it'll turn out very well!
Nick
FYI: The recipe calls for Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt, 2 TBS of which is the equivalent of 1 TBS of table salt.
AB
The lentils are drained in the first step, so I suppose a lot of the salt is discarded.
Bridget
I added a lot of water to the pot when cooking the rice and lentils. A little more than one inch above the rice as the recipe suggests and it still used up all the liquid and burned the bottom. I had to cut the rice cooking time by a 1/4. Anyone else have this problem? What am I doing wrong? (I’m awful at cooking rice!)
DDF
Really good! I also added saffron & garlic to rice while it was cooking, and then sprinkled cardamom and cloves on the top while it was steaming. In addition to the fresh dates I also added dried cherries, apricots, and cranberries. I put a few dallops of yogurt prior to serving and sprinkled pistachios on top. (Oh, I also only cooked 2 cups of rice.)
Graham Davis
If you prefer a less salty dish, as I do, be sure to RINSE the lentils. Don’t just drain them. I drained as instructed and too much salt was carried over into the rice once mixed with the lentils.
Nicole
1 c brown basmati in rice cooker plus suggested spices. 1 c lentils cooked per pkg instructions with salt & spices, then drained. Added them together and let warm in cooker after rice was done. All else the same. It was the perfect amount of rice & lentils for the dish! Delicious!
kim
has anyone adjusted this for brown rice?
Tina HP/Paris
May i just say, Oh. My. Tastebuds. Can't follow a recipe as is, can we?, so added toasted slivered almonds and chopped pistachios to top. Used golden lentils. Used Mazafati dates (from Iran, so makes sense really), did butter for dates + a little on top of rice/lentils. Didn't have rose water, so added a little 'fleur d'oranger' - orange blossom water? - to the dates. Think will cook rice and lentils together next time to keep the warming cinnamon. Added cardamom pods, saffron and cloves.
Mary
I found the instructions for cooking the rice rather labyrinthine. I added small cubes of feta, toasted slivered almonds, Italian parsely and arugula to the platter. Made a raita with dry mint, salt, shredded Lebanesse cucumber and full-fat Middle Eastern yogurt. Every bite was savoury, sweet, fresh and rich. Delicious.
Trudi
can I make this earlier in the day and warm in the microwave?
Leslie
As I’m cooking this dish, it smells wonderful. However, living at 8900 feet in the mountains of Colorado, the timing is WAY off! I should have realized with all the water boiling and cooking that I needed add another hour to the total time. Water boils at a much lower temperature thus adding significantly to cooking time. Rather than 45 minutes, it’s closer to 2 hours.
Scott
I did reduce the salt when cooking the lentils to one tablespoon. This was an excellent and unique recipe in a time when the many magazines I subscribe to are just rehashing many old recipes. I could not acquire Medjool dates near my location but found some nice organic dates that worked nicely (about 1.5 cups diced). For the herbs I went 50/50 on mint and cilantro. which worked well.
Erin
Really good! I decreased rice to 1.5 cups, eyeballed water (maybe 1/3 to 1/2 inch over rice), decreased cinnamon to 1 T, and used apricots plus pistachios (added directly to onions at the end). Next time I will use 3 onions and increase herbs (cilantro, mint).
Adelaide
Way too many dates! The dates I found were dried in a tub and they were super sticky to chop and saute. The dish itself was pretty good. I may just use a handful of raisins instead, the next time I make it. Am I missing something about the dates?
naomi
Add those spices to rice cooking water
AllisonT
This was good but made a ton. I halved the rice and lentils and still had 5-6 servings. Also would prefer more specific amount on rice:water ratio, as I had to add more water a few times and it took close to 30 minutes for the rice to cook through. Will heed advice to add more spices - cardamom, saffron, ginger?
denise
This sounded so good, but turned out terribly. I kept having to add water—the rice was heavy and gooey and SO MUCH RICE. The almost-cooked lentils never went beyond almost-cooked after going into the rice. I wound up throwing out most of it. Normal style of measurements would maybe have helped (not "cover the rice by one inch"). The onion-date mixture was delicious.
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