If you want to cook something authentic and ethnic, koshari is your best bet. It’s layers of pasta, rice, lentils and chickpeas smothered with a spicy, tangy tomato sauce and topped with caramelized onions. It’s vegan, it’s cheap to make, it’s super easy to make and it’s effing to die for. And — bonus points — it’s Egypt’s national dish!
So what better way to celebrate your Egyptian heritage than making this dish?
Here’s what you’ll need:
2 c rice, cooked
2 c lentils, cooked
2 c orzo or other short pasta, cooked
2 c chickpeas
Sauce:
1 can tomato sauce
10 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 c vinegar
1/3 c water
1/2 can tomato paste
1 tsp cumin
salt, pepper
1 tsp red pepper flakes
frying oil
one large onion
Layer the first four ingredients in a deep casserole dish. Set aside. In a pan, gently fry garlic, cumin and red pepper flakes until the garlic is light brown. Do not burn, or you might as well throw everything out.
Pour in the vinegar and simmer for two minutes in low heat. Add in tomato sauce, water and tomato paste, and let simmer for five minutes. Season to taste. Add a little more salt (since you didn’t season the lentils/rice in the casserole).
Ladle sauce over casserole. In another pot, cook the onions over low heat for about 15 minutes until it’s caramelized. Arrange over the top of the casserole.
Et voila — Koshari!
I personally like to eat mine with Greek yogurt, but you can do whatever you want. Many people will disagree with the starches that form the basis for this dish (there’s usually vermicelli noodles, but since I can barely find it in the local Giant, I figured that it was a lost cause), but whatever.
