What? You don’t know what Koshari is?” asked my husband’s friend with a shock on his face as if we had committed a crime by not knowing the existence of Koshari. That was the first time I had heard about today’s dish - Koshari during a get together with friends, a few years back. After the initial shock, he explained the dish to us in detail. It was clear that he was addicted to the dish. Honestly, initially, I felt that the combination of lentil, rice, pasta, chickpeas, sauce, and the spicy dressing was weird. But that made me even more eager to try this strange combination. The next morning I searched about it online and got to know that it’s the national dish of Egypt and a very popular street food there. Everybody who had tried it was praising the dish - not only Egyptians but other nationalities too. The most interesting fact is that the national dish of a meat-loving country is Vegan. Another interesting story that I discovered about Koshari is that it is inspired by the simple comfort food of India – Khichdi a dish made with rice and lentils. It was brought to Egypt from India by the British during the British occupation of Egypt. It was then modified by the Egyptian soldiers who added local flavors to it and thus Koshari got created. Don’t get overwhelmed by seeing the long recipe. It looks exhausting as there are different layers of the dish which are required to be prepared separately, unlike Khichdi in which everything is cooked together. However, the individual recipe for each layer is super simple so you can make all of them simultaneously. To save time, you can also prepare some layers in advance. For e.g., I keep my Birista (fried onions) ready in advance and store it in the fridge. I also boil the chickpeas in advance or use the canned ones. Similarly, you can also simplify the recipe by doing some advance planning. Interested to check the vegan version of National dish of some more countries? Don’t miss to check out the following recipes on this blog:
- Vegan Nasi Goreng ( National dish of Indonesia)
- Fasolada (National dish of Greece)
- Pad Thai (National dish of Thailand) If you try any of my recipes then don’t miss to share your feedback and rate it in the comments section below. You can also follow me on Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram.
Step by step photo instructions
Recipe
