Egyptian Koshari Recipe (The Best I've Had)

Soak the dried lentils and dried chickpeas in water for 3 hours prior to making koshari.

See note 3 if using canned chickpeas. Boil the dried chickpeas until semi-cooked (about 45 minutes to an hour). Drain water. Add fresh water and the ground cumin. Boil chickpeas a second time for another 30 minutes. Once chickpeas are cooked, squeeze the lime over the chickpeas.

Chop the onions into circles. Mix with flour and set aside for 30 minutes prior to frying.

Fry in oil, preferably sunflower oil. Using a frying spatula, remove the onions from the oil. Set onto a paper towel and set aside. Salt as desired. Keep the sunflower oil to use some of it in other parts of the recipe.

Blend the tomatoes, bell pepper, onion, and garlic cloves in the food processor. If you would like a spicy sauce, add 1 spicy pepper. Add the ground cumin, ground coriander, oil (from the fried onions), lime juice, salt, and pepper. Blend and set aside.

Blend the onions in a food processor. In a high-rimmed stovetop pot, add the oil (from the fried onions). Cook the blended onions slowly on low heat for about 10 minutes.

Add the drained brown lentils (these will be about 2.25 cups after being soaked) and water. Bring to a boil. Simmer for 10 minutes covered, or until they soften.

Turn down the heat to medium-low. Add the short-grain rice, salt, and pepper. Mix the koshari rice and cook on medium-low heat covered until the rice is tender (about 12 to 15 minutes). Turn off the stove and allow the rice to rest covered for 5 minutes.

Boil water and add about 1 tbsp of salt. Break the spaghetti pasta in half, then break the half again making quarter-size sections of spaghetti. Break about 15 spaghetti noodles at the same time.

Add the spaghetti pasta and elbow pasta to the boiling water. Cook the pasta until desired firmness. Drain the pasta and set it aside.

Blend the tomatoes in a blender. Strain tomatoes into a bowl. Alternatively, use canned tomato passata (see note 7). Mince the garlic cloves.

Fry oil (or ghee) with 1 tsp chili flakes (or chili powder) for 30 seconds then add the minced garlic cloves. Add the tomato paste and vinegar for about 30 seconds before adding the blended tomatoes.

Add the ground cumin, ground coriander, salt, sugar, and ground black pepper. simmer for about 10 minutes.

Layer the dish, starting with lentil rice on the bottom, then cooked pasta, chickpeas, koshari vinegar sauce (and optional sauce), and top with fried onions.