Healthy Koshari

Koshari is a dish famous in Egypt! It uses many ingredients, so it’s perfect when you have a lot of leftovers laying around.

The dish is vegan by default, which is amazing! There are only minor adjustments in this recipe to make it healthier than the traditional. For example, here I used brown rice and sautéed the onions or baked them instead and other tiny adjustments.

Hope you like this recipe and remember, if you’re in Egypt, please try Koshari and Ful, of course.

I know, it looks like there are endless steps, but please, don’t get intimidated, it’s a lot easier than it seems.

---

Koshari

Ingredients

Koshari

• 1 cup lentils

• 1 cup brow or white rice

• 2 bayleaves

• 1 large onion

• 3 garlic cloves

• Ground cumin

• Sea salt and black pepper to taste

• 500 grams of pasta

• 1 cup cooked chickpeas

• Green onions for garnishing

Tomato Sauce

• 5 garlic cloves

• 500 grams of tomatoes - about 4-5 medium tomatoes

• 2 tbsp tomato paste

• Sea salt and black pepper to taste

• 1/8 tsp of  ground cumin

Dogga

• 3 garlic cloves minced

• 1/4 cup white vinegar

• 1/2 cup of water

• Ground coriander

• Sea salt to taste

• 1/8-1/4 tsp of cumin

• Black pepper

• 1 tsp of chili sauce

Steps

Koshari

• First, soak the lentils for 20 minutes and the rice in a different bowl then rinse

• Dice the onions and sauté them until they become transparent or you can bake them alternatively

• Remove the onions and cook the rice in place

• For each cup of brown rice, add two cups of water, bring to a boil, then cover and simmer for 30 minutes or until it absorbs all the water

• Keep the lid on for the rice after it’s done cooking for ten minutes

• Remove the lid then fluff the rice.

• For the lentils, boil with two cups of water and the bayleaves for 20-30 minutes or until it absorbs the water 

• Cook the pasta according to the package instructions

• Mix all except the onions with one cup of cooked chickpeas and add the onions on top. 

Tomato Sauce

• Blend the tomatoes

• Heat a large pan on medium heat and saute the garlic

• Add the tomato sauce and tomato paste with the spices and bring to a simmer

• Cook for 20-30 minutes or until it reduces in size and becomes a thick sauce

  Dogga

• Heat a small pan on medium heat

• Saute the garlic then add the remaining ingredients

• Bring to a boil then turn off the heat

To serve

• Top the koshari with the tomato sauce and garnish with green onions. Have extra tomato sauce and dogga on the side plus some hot sauce!

• Enjoy!

Recipe adapted from this blog