Koshari

Ingredients

• 300 g long grain rice, rinsed
• 200 g brown or green lentils
• 150 g small macaroni
• 60 g vermicelli, broken up
• 1 tin of chickpeas, drained
• 4 large onions, sliced very thin
• 300 ml vegetable oil, for frying the onions
• 500 g passata
• 4 garlic cloves, crushed
• 3 tbsp vinegar
• 1 tbsp ground cumin
• 1 1/2 tsp chilli flakes
• 2 tbsp cornflour

Method

1. Fry the onions first

   Toss the sliced onions in the cornflour and fry in batches in the hot oil until deep brown and crisp, then drain on paper. These are not a garnish — crisp onions are the defining element of koshari, and they take longer than you think.

   25 min

2. Keep the onion oil

   Strain the frying oil and keep it. Two tablespoons of it go into the tomato sauce, and it carries all the sweetness the onions gave up.

3. Cook the lentils

   Simmer the lentils in unsalted water until tender but still whole, about 20 minutes, then drain. Salt now would toughen the skins.

   20 min

4. Rice with vermicelli

   Toast the broken vermicelli in a little of the onion oil until golden, add the rinsed rice and 480 ml water, season, and cook covered on the lowest heat for 12 minutes, then rest 10 minutes off the heat.

   22 min

5. Pasta and chickpeas

   Boil the macaroni separately and warm the chickpeas through. Everything is cooked apart and layered — that separation is the whole idea of the dish.

6. Make the two sauces

   Simmer the passata with garlic, cumin, chilli and 2 tbsp of the onion oil for 15 minutes, then stir the vinegar in off the heat. Keep some of the vinegar and garlic separate as a sharp daqqa to splash on at the table.

   15 min

7. Layer it

   Build in the order rice, lentils, macaroni, chickpeas, then flood with tomato sauce and pile the crisp onions on top. Do not mix it in the pan — everyone stirs their own bowl.