Koshari

Sackville's Note:

I like to think of this vegetarian dish as Egyptian-style chilli. I was first introduced to it during a trip to Egypt four years ago, where it was nearly all we ate for a week! It's served in "fast food" type restaurants, sold from carts by street vendors and made in the home. There can be many variations, but this is close to the one I grew to love. By the way, this is a great recipe when you need to feed a crowd on the cheap.

• Total Time: 55 mins
• Prep Time: 10 mins
• Cook Time: 45 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 6

• 1 cup brown lentils
• 1 cup basmati rice
• 1 cup uncooked pasta (small shells or elbow macaroni is best)
• 2 large onions, diced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 1 (400 g) can chopped tomatoes
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red chili pepper flakes (or more to taste)
• salt and black pepper

Directions:

1. Cook the lentils in just over a litre of salted water.
2. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer, covered, for 15-30 minutes, depending on the type of lentils you are using.
3. When the lentils are quite tender, add the rice to the lentils and continue simmering until the rice is cooked, adding water if necessary.
4. Cook the macaroni in a separate pot.
5. Rinse and strain when done.
6. Meanwhile, fry the onions and garlic in the oil until golden.
7. Add the tomatoes, chilli flakes, salt and pepper to taste and let it bubble for 10-20 minutes or until thickened and sauce like.
8. You can now blitz the sauce in a food processor until smooth or just leave as is.
9. Mix the lentils, rice and macaroni together in one pot.
10. Place some of the lentil mixture on each plate and top with tomato sauce.
11. Sprinkle with more hot chili powder or salt and pepper, if desired.

Reviews

[Mike McCartney]

Excellent. I liked this very much. I admit that I am a big time meat eater, and the only reason I made this was because I am trying new dishes that use Basmati rice. I'm glad I tried this one. The only thing I did different was to add a couple of tablespoons of tomato paste to thicken the sauce a little more, otherwise did as instructed and it turned out great.

[lrn2trvl]

very tasty. I froze a lot of it for later, and I am eating it reheated now; I wouldn't say it freezes well. If you're planning on freezing left-overs, be sure to cook everything very lightly (perhaps it's just that pasta and lentils don't freeze well). I agree with another reviewer, more sauce would be nice! Next time I would use 2 cans of tomato...

[gardenstomp]

Wow! As did another reviewer, I saw this on No Reservations and was so curious I made it for my mother and father the next day! Dad doesn't like onions so I only diced one in with the sauce and kept the four cloves of garlic. Like others said, I would DEFINITELY recommend getting two cans or more of tomato, only one can likely won't be enough. Very flavorful and delicious. Make sure you crisp some onions in the pan and put them on top, it's to die for!