Stuck-Pot Rice with Lentils

I had this recipe from Smitten Kitchen saved for quite a while. Now that people seem to be freaking out a little less about hoarding dry beans during the pandemic, we were finally able to find lentils at the grocery store so I could try making this. I served it with yogurt marinated chicken.

This is the first time I've tried to cook a tahdig type rice dish, and I was worried that it would be undercooked when I flipped it onto the serving plate, but it worked! I'm so pleased with how it turned out, and it tasted wonderful too. I would absolutely make this again. Below it is pictured with a garlic lemon yogurt that I thought made it taste especially good (using a scaled down version of this recipe: 1/3 cup yogurt, 1 clove smashed and chopped fresh garlic, 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice).

 

Notes:

• I had a shallot lying around and cooked that with the onions.
• I added ~ 2 tbsp butter to the pot when it was time to slowly fry the rice and I think it helped to both keep it from sticking and add a bit of extra color.
• I added 1/4 tsp turmeric to a batch once and it made the rice a pleasant yellow color.
  
• Note to self: I set the burner to 4 ticks on the back burner with 2 parts, and the bottom rice part was ever so slightly burned in the middle after 35 minutes. Either 4 ticks for less time or 2 ticks for 35 minutes on the back burner. I think I cooked it on the front burner on 2 ticks last time and it did not get browned or crunchy.
  

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RECIPE: Stuck-Pot Rice with Lentils