Koshari

 

Koshari, traditional egyptian street food, is an excellent weekday dish. It’s economical, yet filling and tasty. It’s just a layered bowl of lentils, rice, chickpeas, pasta, spicy tomato sauce and fried onions. I simply love it. First time I had koshari as street food in London and instantly fell in love with its simplicity and lovely flavour combinations. Have you tried koshari before?

Have a nice weekend!

Your VegHog

 

Koshari

Koshari or Kushari is an Egyptian dish containing rice, lentils, macaroni, tomato sauce, crispy fried onions and cumin. There are different variations of the dish, and sometimes also chickpeas or short spaghetti are added. It's a wholesome meal, often served as street food, and it's one of Egypt's national dishes.

I had koshari for the first time as street food in London, and I've been making my own ever since I tasted the goodness. Now we also have a koshari restaurant close to our home, which is very tempting.

I made this koshari with brown rice, green lentils, small macaroni, spicy chickpeas, crispy fried onions and spicy homemade tomato sauce. It was seasoned with ground cumin, smoked paprika, salt and black pepper. I also think that koshari is the ultimate cheap eats that you can make from stuff out of the dry cupboard. I'm trying to save some money for the summer holidays without compromising healthy eating, and that's when koshari comes to the picture.

Have a lovely Sunday everyone!

Your VegHog

Koshari

The weather this weekend has been absolutely gorgeous. I can't believe that it has been so warm and sunny throughout. However I read that the temperatures will be going down drastically for tomorrow. Oh well, it's Monday anyway, so it doesn't really matter. Anyway I will be heading out soon to enjoy the good spring weather a bit more.

First to today's recipe. I really like Koshari, especially as street food, but it's sometimes nice to make it at home as well. It's a traditional Egyptian dish made with rice, lentils, macaroni, vermicelli and chickpeas and topped with a tomato sauce and fried onions. Koshari is very comforting and filling, perfect veggie food when you need a lot of energy.

Below is the recipe, how I made my Koshari this time. Remember that timing is key to get everything ready at the same time, as there is a lot of separate cooking going on. Luckily the processes aren't complicated, so this can be well managed without stress.

Koshari

Ingredients

Homemade tomato sauce with garlic and chilli

1 cup green lentils

½ brown rice

1 tbsp vegetable stock powder

2 cups cooked chickpeas

1 tsp smoked chilli powder

1 tsp ground cumin

2 vermicelli pasta nests

200 g wholewheat cavatappi pasta

1 tsp za'atar for sprinkling on the top

A few fresh coriander leaves for sprinkling on the top

Fried onions

Method

Make the tomato sauce first or use a ready made one. A rich tomato sauce with loads of garlic and chilli is perfect for this dish.

Cook the lentils and the rice together to avoid using loads of pots. If the lentils need a shorter cooking time, add them later to the saucepan. Add also a little salt and vegetable stock powder.

Warm the cooked chickpeas up in a pan and add some smoked chilli powder and ground cumin to season.

Break the vermicelli into about 2 cm long pieces and briefly cook them in hot oil so that they turn brown. This really happens quite quickly, so keep an eye on them. Add the vermicelli to the rice and lentils for the last few minutes of cooking, so that they'll also get soft.

Cook the pasta separately. I chose a larger pasta shape instead of the smaller macaroni. These worked very well in this dish.

Layer the components into a bowl and serve with the tomato sauce and fried onions. I didn't make my fried onions myself this time, so you can either buy some or make your own.

Enjoy!

I want to share this recipe with My Legume Love Affair #106 hosted by Ali from Fix Me a Little Lunch, and co-hosted by Lisa from Lisa's Kitchen.

Your VegHog

Koshari

Koshari is an Egyptian dish made with rice, lentils, macaroni, vermicelli and chickpeas and topped with a tomato sauce and fried onions. I've had it quite a few times as street food and have totally fallen in love with the dish. What scared me off making it myself previously, was the amount of components. I was basically fearing I wouldn't have enough pots to cook everything separately. Now I felt brave enough and started making Koshari. It turned out that it wasn't such a horrible multi-tasking exercise, but quite straight forward instead, as most of the processes are simple. I used for example ready made fried onions to save that stage. There can be several variations of Koshari and the below recipe is my version of the dish.

Tomato sauce:

300 g tomatoes

1 small onion

3 garlic cloves

1 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp tomato purée

Chilli flakes

Ground cumin

Ground nutmeg

Ground black pepper

Salt

Other ingredients:

1 cup brown rice

1 cup puy lentils

1 cup macaroni

1 cup vermicelli pasta

1 can chickpeas

2 vegetable stock cubes

½ tsp smoked paprika

Fried onions

Method

First make the tomato sauce. Chop the onion and garlic cloves finely, cook them in olive oil, add the tomatoes and cook slowly under lid. Season to taste. Add more chilli flakes and other seasoning, if you prefer a very spicy sauce. When the sauce is almost done, start with the other preparations.

Cook the rice and the lentils with a vegetable stock cube each in separate pots. Basically everything is cooked separately and layered into a bowl in the end.

Cook the macaroni and vermicelli (break the vermicelli into about 1 cm long pieces first).

Warm the chickpeas up and season them with smoked paprika. Normally I would use dried chickpeas, but this time I chose the canned ones in order to save some additional cooking time.

Layer the components, top with tomato sauce and fried onions and enjoy.

This dish is also my contribution to this month's My Legume Love Affair (MLLA) #86 cooking challenge. It's hosted this month by Shaheen from Allotment 2 Kitchen. MLLA was started by Susan from The Well Seasoned Cook and now administered by Lisa from Lisa's Kitchen. I thought that koshari would be a suitable dish to this challenge, as it's quite rich on lentils and puy lentils.

Have a good week everyone!

Your VegHog