Koshary : Where Beans and Grains are Cooked Together

Koshary is a very popular Egyptian recipe, which combines both beans and grains together. It uses Rice, macaroni, lentils, chickpeas, Onions, Garlic, Tomatoes, lemon, vinegar, and hot chili.

It is sold everywhere and all the people elaborate their way to make and enjoy Koshary. In fact, it is a delicious as well as a complete meal, regarding its nutritive value and calorie content.

It acquires its nutritive value from combining many categories of food, and combining more than one variety within the same category, for example, different beans offer a complete protein, and different vegetables and spices offer a wide range of healthy phyto-chemicals.

2 cup --------- Rice
1 1/2 cups --- Macaroni
1 cup --------- Black Lentils (soaked for 6 hours)
1 cup --------- Chickpeas
1 lb ---------- Onions (large size)
1 lb ---------- Tomatoes (red ripe but not soft)
10-12 cloves-- Garlic
Hot Chili (red and green), Vinegar, Lemon, Cumin, and Salt according to your preferences, besides oil for frying.

- Cut the Onions into 2 halves and make very thin slices
- Heat an empty pan and mix onion slices with a pinch of salt in it, leave until dry and golden
- Add oil to the onions and leave until it gets a reddish golden color
- Remove the Onions and put it in a seize covered with a paper tissue to remove oil

- Boil chickpeas in salted water, when cooked (becomes soft) remove it, filter and rinse with cold water

- Boil black lentils, filter and wash
- Mince garlic with 1 TBS of cumin then fry in oil
- Add black lentils to fried mixture, add a pinch of salt and black pepper and mix

- Boil macaroni in salted water and add some oil, some people boil macaroni in milk
- When it is cooked, remove macaroni, filter and rinse with cold water

- Prepare rice the regular way
- Some people replace half the amount of rice with noodles and cook them together

- Boil peeled red tomatoes
- Blend cooked tomatoes with very hot red chillies, hot green chillies and pour the mixture into a pan
- Mince 3 cloves of garlic with 1 TSP of cumin and then fry them
- Add garlic and cumin mixture and 1 TSP of sugar to tomato juice and cook

This is a crucial step for the characteristic taste of koshary. It is the last thing to be added  to koshary just before eating. You may serve free amounts to be used by each individual according to his taste.

- Mix 3 cloves of garlic, cumin, hot red chillies, salt and vinegar or lemon juice or both in the blender
- Heat the mixture and bring it to boiling, get a consistency of sauce

This is just for serving in an appealing look, because all the layers will be mixed before eating.
The first layer is rice, then macaroni, black lentils, chickpeas, tomato paste and lately onion rings.