🛒 Shop the ingredients for this recipe
Tap "Add all to basket" — or click any item to view it first.
- £1.84
- £1.94
- £5.64
- £1.19
⚠️ Heads-up: 4 of these ingredients (Egyptian Rice, Macaroni, Tomato Passata, White Vinegar) are not in our shop yet. Request them → or grab from a UK supermarket while we source.
“In Cairo, koshary is the dish that holds the country together — carbs stacked on carbs, lentils, chickpeas, that fierce tomato sauce, the daqqa garlic-vinegar shock, and a crown of crispy onions. Three siblings can fight over the last spoonful. That is Nafas.”
— Dr Hany, Zambahola
— Dr Hany, Zambahola
🎤 Recipe credit: The video below is by Heba Abo Elkheir — we don’t reproduce the chef’s recipe text. Our notes are written from scratch with metric/cup conversions and UK substitutes for our diaspora and UK readers. Watch the original on the Heba Abo Elkheir channel.
Ingredients
| Ingredient | Metric | UK Cups | Notes / UK substitute |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brown lentilsعدس بني | 200 g | 1 cup | Whole brown / Egyptian dark lentils. Don’t use red — they go mushy. |
| Egyptian short-grain riceأرز مصري | 200 g | 1 cup | Essential. Sub: arborio or pudding rice. Don’t use basmati — the texture goes wrong. We’re sourcing Egyptian rice (Coming Soon). |
| Macaroni / ditaliniمكرونة قصيرة | 150 g | 1½ cups dry | Small tube pasta. |
| Spaghetti, broken into 2-3 cm | 50 g | handful | Optional but classic. |
| Cooked chickpeasحمص | 240 g | 1 tin | Drained. |
| Crispy fried onionsبصل مقلي | 1 generous handful | The crown. Ready-fried saves an hour. | |
| Tomato passata | 500 ml | 2 cups | Or chopped tinned tomatoes blended. |
| Garlic, crushed | 4 cloves | Don’t skimp. | |
| White vinegar | 3 tbsp | 1 for sauce, 2 for daqqa. | |
| Ground cuminكمون | 2 tsp | ||
| Ground coriander | 1 tsp | ||
| Chilli flakes / shatta | to taste | ||
| Olive oil | 3 tbsp | ||
| Salt & pepper | to taste |
Method
- Lentils first. Rinse, cover with cold water, simmer 20-25 min until tender but holding shape. Drain.
- Rice with vermicelli. Toast a small handful of broken vermicelli in 1 tbsp oil until golden, add rinsed Egyptian rice, stir for a minute, add 1¼ cups water + salt. Cover, low heat 15 min, rest 5 min.
- Pasta. Boil macaroni and broken spaghetti in salted water until al dente. Drain.
- Chickpeas. Warm drained chickpeas in a splash of water with a pinch of cumin and salt.
- Tomato sauce. Fry crushed garlic in 2 tbsp olive oil 30 seconds, add 1 tsp cumin, chilli, passata. Simmer 12-15 min until thick. Finish with 1 tbsp vinegar, salt, pepper.
- The daqqa (garlic-vinegar shock). Sizzle 2 cloves crushed garlic in a teaspoon of oil 20 seconds — don’t brown — off the heat add 2 tbsp vinegar. It will hiss. That hiss is the soul of koshary.
- Build the bowl. Layer: rice, pasta, lentils. Spoon tomato sauce over. Scatter chickpeas. A teaspoon of daqqa per person. Crown with crispy onions.
- Serve. Extra shatta on the side. Eat immediately. Argue about the ratios.
🛒 Shop the ingredients on Zambahola
Most of what you need is on the shelf. Items still being sourced are flagged below.
Brown Lentils
SARA 1kg
Chickpeas
SARA 1kg
Crispy Fried Onions
SARA 200g
Cumin Powder
SARA 75g
Ground Coriander
100g
Chilli Powder
SARA 75g
Garlic Powder
75g
Egyptian Rice
Coming soon · request
Macaroni
Coming soon · request
Tomato Passata
Coming soon · request
White Vinegar
Coming soon · request
🎤 Listen instead — the Koshary — Egypt’s National Dish podcast
A few minutes on the history, the ratios, and the chef’s little secret — generated with NotebookLM.
Audio coming — we will embed the NotebookLM podcast here within 24 hours.
📝 Got a better version? Share it.
Drop your family’s recipe for Koshary — Egypt’s National Dish in the comments below. Tell us your name, your city, your tweak.
If your version gets the most ♥ likes, we’ll feature it on this page with your name (with your permission). Best recipes win the bowl.