🍝 Koshari
Koshari is Egypt's best-known street dish: rice, brown lentils and small macaroni layered in a bowl and topped with a spiced tomato sauce, a sharp garlic-vinegar dressing and a heap of crispy fried onions. It is cheap, filling and entirely plant-based. Each diner adjusts the sauce and vinegar to taste, and it is eaten at any time of day.
Diets
Allergens
Contains (in a typical recipe):
What it is made of
Recipe
Ingredients
- 200 g rice
- 200 g brown lentils
- 200 g small macaroni
- 400 g tomato passata, 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 4 garlic cloves
- 1 tsp cumin, chili flakes, salt
- 3 onions, thinly sliced
- Vegetable oil for frying
- Dressing: 60 ml white vinegar, 2 crushed garlic cloves, 1 tsp cumin, 60 ml water
Method
- Fry the onions in oil until deep brown and crisp; drain and keep the oil.
- Boil the lentils for 20 minutes until just tender, then add the rice, 1 tbsp onion oil, salt and water to cover by 1 cm; cover and cook 15 minutes.
- Boil the macaroni in salted water and drain.
- Fry the garlic in a little onion oil, add passata, tomato paste, cumin, chili and salt and simmer 15 minutes.
- Mix the vinegar dressing.
- Layer rice and lentils, then macaroni, then sauce, and top with fried onions and dressing.
How to make it lighter
- Go easy on the fried onions: they absorb a lot of oil.
- Ask for more lentils and less macaroni and rice.
- Choose the small bowl and add extra tomato sauce and vinegar for flavour.
History
Koshari is usually linked to the Indian dish khichdi of rice and lentils, which is thought to have reached Egypt in the 19th century, with Italian pasta and tomato added later. By the 20th century it had become a staple of Cairo's street carts and dedicated koshari shops.
Count it in one photo
Point your camera at the table — Me Nutrition recognises Koshari and every other dish, with calories and macros for each. Ate only half? Slide it.
Download on the App StoreSimilar dishes
Values are estimates per 100 g for a typical recipe; home and restaurant versions vary. Diets and allergens are worked out from the ingredients of a typical recipe — always check with whoever cooked the dish. Not medical advice. Nutrition data: Me Nutrition dish database v13. How we count →