Koshari is a beloved Egyptian comfort food - layers of rice, lentils, pasta, and chickpeas tossed with a spicy, tangy tomato sauce and crispy fried onions. See how to make it, along with photos of our amazing trip to Egypt.
A couple of months ago, we returned from an unforgettable trip to the beautiful country of Egypt. What an experience it was! A kaleidoscope of sights and sounds, fantastic flavours, ancient history, stunning monuments, vast spaces, and warm and welcoming people. Everything is bigger, bolder, and brighter in this country of contrasts. We spent most of our three weeks there walking around with our mouths hanging open in sheer wonder at the massive ancient architecture, starting with the amazing pyramids of Giza, just at the edge of the city of Cairo (the first thing we saw out of our hotel room window when we arrived) and continuing with one spectacular sight after another.
We had some days on our own at the beginning and end of the trip, and took a 12 day tour of Egypt with Intrepid in the middle of it. What fun to travel with a great group of new friends from all over the world, led by our amazingly knowledgeable and friendly Egyptian guide, Sam (pictured center, front row, below).
We traveled by van, bus, and ferry boat, took our first overnight train, sailed in a Felucca (Egyptian sailboat), and had a 3-day cruise down the Nile River - all so very memorable.
We were so lucky to get to visit a Nubian village near Aswan (Nubians are an indigenous ethnic group in Egypt, one of the earliest inhabitants of the Nile Valley, with their own cultural traditions). We learned about their customs from one of the elders, were offered a delicious feast in one of their homes, and later were entertained and persuaded to dance with a gregarious group of local children.
In fact, we were served many delicious feasts and welcome snacks by the very hospitable people we met all over Egypt. The Nubian dinner served by a smiliing home-cook was an abundant array of beautifully seasoned stewed winter vegetables, braised chicken and lamb, and freshly baked bread. The beautiful lunch we were served in another local's home in Luxor was a loaded smorgasbord of delightful dishes, all richly flavoured and cooked with love and gentle spices; eggplants, zucchini, tomatoes, potatoes, rice, fish, and chicken offerings.
The contrast of colours and desert sands, spices and gentle sweets, modern amenities and ancient antiquities left such an impression on us.
And for me, the heart of any country can always be found at its markets.
And now I'm hungry! Let's get making a dish of koshari - it's a comforting melange of rice, pasta, and beans, served with a tangy, slightly spicy tomato sauce. We enjoyed it in a restaurant dedicated to only making this dish, and it was delicious and economical (I think we paid the equivalent of $1.50 in Canadian dollars for a big plate of it.) You can find koshari/koshary/kushari on offer in markets, restaurants, and from street vendors in most corners of Egypt. Once you make it a few times, you'll find that it's easy to adapt it to whatever ingredients you have on hand. It's always filling, tasty, and a nutritious source of vegetarian protein.
Ingredients Needed to Make Koshari
You can use canned lentils and chickpeas, or cook them up fresh. Leftover rice or pasta will also work great. Just go with what you've got . . . a little more of this or a little less of that. Use gluten-free pasta if you need to make this dish gluten-free (I used corn and quinoa pasta in the photo below).
How to Make Egyptian Koshari
As much as this is a beloved comfort food dish, there are a number of elements to prepare for the base of koshari. It's most convenient if you cook up the pastas, rice, and legumes the day before (or use leftovers), and use canned lentils and chickpeas. You can also fry up the crispy onions a few days ahead of time (or cheat and buy a bag of pre-fried crispy onions in the asian import section of large grocery stores). You can make the tomato sauce ahead, too, for that matter. You can even make a large batch of the tangy tomato sauce and freeze it in smaller containers to have a bowl of koshari when the craving strikes.
Fry Up the Onions and Make the Sauce
First, fry the sliced onion in oil until browned and crispy. Drain it on paper towels.
While the onion is frying, cook the rice, pasta, and legumes, or warm them up if you made them ahead of time.
Use some of the leftover oil from frying the onions to make the tomato sauce.
Then whiz up the tomato sauce to make it smooth.
Put it all Together
Then stir it all up and dig in!
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Guten Appetit!
Koshari
Ingredients
- ½ cup (120 ml) oil (corn oil or sunflower oil) you won't use it all
- 2 large onions (1 lb/454 g total weight), one sliced thinly and one chopped finely
- 1 cup (200 g) medium grain rice
- 1 cup (130 g) ditalini or elbow macaroni, gluten-free if necessary or other small pasta shapes
- 4½ oz (130 g) spaghetti, gluten-free if necessary (a portion that's about 1 inch in diameter when raw)
- 1 can (14 oz/400 ml) lentils, drained or 1¾ cups cooked lentils (from ¾ cup/150 g raw lentils cooked in 2 cups/500 ml water)
- 1 can (14 oz/400 ml) chickpeas, drained or 1¾ cups cooked chickpeas (from ¾ cup/150 g raw chickpeas, soaked and cooked)
- 6 cloves garlic, crushed, grated, or minced
- 1 can (14 0z/400 ml) diced tomatoes (or 2 cups peeled and chopped fresh tomatoes + 1 tablespoon tomato paste)
- ¾-1 cup (180-240 ml) water
- 4 whole cardamom pods (or ¼ teaspoon ground cardamom)
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper (or just a pinch if you prefer it mild), optional
- 2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar
Instructions
- Note: The four staple ingredients (rice, pasta, lentils, chickpeas) can be used from leftovers or cooked up to several days before and kept chilled. Just rewarm them before assembling the dish.
- Heat the oil to medium-high in a skillet. Slice one of the onions thinly and fry it in the oil, stirring often, until about half of the pieces are brown and starting to crisp up(~10 minutes). Strain out the onions with a slotted spoon and set them onto a paper-towel-lined plate to drain and cool (they will get crisper as they cool).
- While the onions are frying, start the base ingredients cooking. Cook the rice according to package directions, and keep it warm.
- Cook the macaroni and spaghetti according to package directions (break the spaghetti into 2-inch/5 cm lengths before cooking) and drain. They can be cooked in the same pot if cooking times fit (usually about 9-10 minutes). Drain and keep warm.
- Drain the canned lentils and chickpeas, rinse them, and drain them again. (If using raw legumes, cook lentils until tender, and drain. Chickpeas will need to be soaked overnight before cooking until tender - an hour or more - then drained.)
- When the sliced onions are fried crispy and cooling, pour off some of the oil, leaving about 3 tablespoons in the skillet, and return the skillet to the heat. (Reserve the oil for frying other things, as it's beautifully onion-flavoured.) Add the second onion, which has been minced finely, to the oil in the skillet. Also add the pressed or minced garlic, and cook them together over medium heat for 5 minutes, stirring often.
- Add the canned tomatoes (and their juices) and the water to the onions in the skillet.
- Lightly crush the cardamom pods with the bottom of a glass. Pick out the seeds and add them to the tomato sauce (discard the pod shells).
- Bring the tomato sauce to a boil, then reduce the heat to low, and add the salt, pepper, cayenne, and vinegar to the sauce. Simmer it, uncovered, for 5 minutes.
- Puree the tomato sauce with an immersion blender (or in the canister of a standing blender). Add more water if desired, to make a thinner sauce. Taste and adjust for seasoning, adding more salt, cayenne, or vinegar, as needed. Keep warm.
To assemble the Koshari:
- Stir together the warm rice and lentils. Spread them in a large serving bowl or divide them among four individual dishes. Top with the drained mixed pasta, then the chickpeas. Top it all with about half of the crispy fried onions, reserving the rest to top each serving. Serve the tangy, spiced tomato sauce on the side, along with the remaining onions.To eat, top a serving of koshari with tomato sauce to taste, a sprinkling of onions, and then mix it all together, and enjoy.
- This recipe makes 4 generous main dish servings, or serves 6-8 as a side dish. Nutrition values are for ⅛ of the recipe.
Notes
- Use a different rice or different types of beans instead of the lentils and chickpeas.
- Use whatever pasta shapes you have on hand.
- Use prepackaged fried shallots or onions instead of frying your own.
- Add other herbs or seasonings to the tomato sauce (just make it tangy and a little bit spicy).
Mimi Rippee
What great photos! And such good looking food. I just made a dish called Mejadra that is so similar, topped with fried onions! An Ottolenghi recipe.
Margaret
Thank you very much. Such delicious food from that part of the world!
Elsa Geier
That looks like a very tasty dish I will try it out thanks Margaret .
The pictures are amazing what a wonderful trip you had !
Margaret
Thank you so much, Elsa. ❤️ Yes, it really was an amazing trip - exciting in every way!
Meredith Adams
Amazing photos! So colorful and a wonderful representation of the architecture and cultures of this area. Thank you for sharing the recipe too!
Margaret
Thank you, Meredith! ❤️❤️ The whole country is filled with so much history, culture, and amazing architecture - an absolutely unforgettable trip!
Kay Golden
Margaret; seeing your pictures & commentary brought back my favorite memories of Egypt! So thrilled you & Raymond got to experience that amazing country & its friendly people. Wishing you both well & more adventures!
You have had an exciting year! Congratulations on doing so well on the baking show. We watched them all !
Margaret
Thank you so very much, Kay!😍 It really was the trip of a lifetime. Our mouths were just hanging open in awe most of the time. What an amazing history and such spectacular monuments, plus the most wonderful people, as you say. How cool that you were there, too. Hopefully we can compare notes sometime soon!
And thank you for being such a wonderful support and watcher of the baking show - that was one of the most memorable experiences of my life, a real highlight. I learned so much and met so many wonderful people. It'll always make me smile. And for some strange reason, it's ignited my love for baking even more! Can't seem to get enough of it now 🙃🤪 (baking way more stuff than we can eat!!!!)
Irmgard Meyer
Thank you Margaret! You are a beautiful baker and a wonderful story teller. I love your photos and your passion for what you do. I always look forward to your posts.
Margaret
Aw, thank you very much, Irmgard.😍 I truly appreciate that. Thank you for reading and supporting me. Hope you are well. Sending you a big hug! ❤️