Vered's Israeli Cooking

Egyptian rice, lentil and tomato sauce dish (koshari)

Vered Guttman

Egyptian koshari

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Koshari is a popular Egyptian street food, that consists of an impossible combination of rice, lentils, pasta, chickpea, all topped with tomato sauce and crispy fried onion. Yet somehow it works really well, and makes the perfect comfort food.

The pasta in the dish is usually elbow pasta, but I use vermicelli noodles here, that also appear on some of the recipes. If you choose to use elbow pasta, just cook it separately and mix with the cooked rice-lentil stew.

Koshari is the Egyptian elaborated brother of other rice and lentil dishes, like the Iraqi kichri and the Indian khichdi or khichri and the Lebanese mejadra. All of which are poor man’s fare done right.

Egyptian rice, lentil and tomato sauce dish (koshari)
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Egyptian rice, lentil and tomato sauce dish (koshari)

Recipe by Vered GuttmanCourse: SidesCuisine: EgyptianDifficulty: Easy
Servings

6

servings
Prep time

30

minutes

Koshari is an Egyptian dish of lentils-rice-pasta-chickpea stew with tomato sauce and crispy fried onion on top. A Middle Eastern comfort food.

INGREDIENTS

  • For the crispy onion

  • 3 tablespoons olive oil

  • 1 large yellow onion, cut in half and sliced thinly

  • 1 teaspoon light brown sugar

  • ¼ teaspoon kosher salt

  • For the tomato sauce

  • 1 large can (28 oz.) whole peeled tomato

  • 4 garlic cloves, minced

  • ¼ teaspoon ground coriander

  • ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

  • ¼ ground cumin

  • ½ teaspoon paprika

  • ¼ teaspoon dried chili flakes

  • ⅛ teaspoon ground clack pepper

  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt, or to taste

  • 1-2 teaspoons distilled vinegar

  • For the rice-lentil-pasta

  • 1 tablespoon olive oil

  • ½ cup vermicelli noodles, broken to small 1 inch pieces

  • ¾ cup dried French or brown lentils

  • 2½ cups vegetable stock or water

  • 1 cup basmati rice

  • 1½ teaspoon Kosher salt

  • To assemble

  • 1 can (14 oz.) cooked chickpea

DIRECTIONS

  • Crispy onion
  • Put oil in a wide non stick pan over medium heat and sauté the onions until nicely browned, about 20 minutes. stir occasionally. Add brown sugar salt for the last two minutes of sautéing and remove from the heat.
  • Tomato sauce
  • Put all tomato sauce ingredients n a heavy bottom saucepan over medium-high heat, mix and bring to boil. Reduce heat to a low simmer and cook for about 20 minutes, mashing the tomatoes and mixing occasionally, until the sauce has thickened. Adjust salt and vinegar to taste. Set aside.
  • Rice, lentil and pasta
  • Put oil in a heavy bottom saucepan over medium high heat. Add vermicelli noodles and cook, stirring frequently, until brown. Transfer noodles to a small bowl and add lentils to the saucepan together with vegetable stock. Bring to boil over medium-high heat, then reduce heat to low, cover and cook for 20 minutes until lentils are almost tender. Add rice and salt, and the browned vermicelli, mix gently, cover and continue to cook for 15 minutes longer. Add boiling water by the ¼ cup if the stew seems too dry.
  • Assemble the koshari
  • Wash chickpea in a colander until water coming out are clean.
  • Arrange koshari in individual or one large communal bowl. Put the rice-lentil stew at the bottom, top generously with tomato sauce, sprinkle chickpea, top it all with the crispy onion and serve.
  • Koshari keeps in the fridge up to 5 days.
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