Koshari: Egypt's National Dish Explained

What is koshari?

Koshari (also spelt kushari or koshary) is a carbohydrate-loaded bowl of rice, lentils and pasta that Egyptians eat for a quick, cheap lunch, and most consider it the national dish. It sounds odd on paper and tastes far better than the sum of its parts, because each layer brings something different: soft rice and lentils, chewy pasta, nutty chickpeas, a tangy tomato sauce, a sharp hit of garlic vinegar and the crunch of deeply browned onions.

It is the definitive working-person's meal. Office workers queue for it at lunchtime, students eat it late at night, and families order it in. A bowl keeps you going through an afternoon of sightseeing, which is why guides often suggest a koshari stop between the Egyptian Museum and Islamic Cairo.

What goes into a bowl of koshari?

A proper bowl has seven or eight components, each cooked separately and assembled to order in seconds.

• Rice: Egyptian short-grain rice, often cooked together with the brown lentils so they mingle, and sometimes with toasted vermicelli.
• Brown lentils: small, whole lentils that keep their shape, not the red split lentils used in soup.
• Pasta: short elbow macaroni, sometimes with broken spaghetti too.
• Tomato sauce (salsa): a thin, tangy sauce cooked with garlic, cumin, a little vinegar and chilli.
• Chickpeas: scattered on top, whole and tender.
• Crisp onions (ta'leya): thinly sliced onions fried slowly until dark brown and crunchy. The oil they are fried in often flavours the rice too.
• Da'ah: garlic, vinegar and cumin in a squeeze bottle, added at the table.
• Shatta: a fiery chilli sauce, also added at the table.

How do you order and eat koshari?

Choose a size, pay, then dress the bowl yourself with garlic vinegar and chilli, mixing everything together before you eat. At most koshari restaurants you order and pay at a counter, take a ticket and hand it to the server, who scoops the layers into a metal or plastic bowl in a few practised movements.

Sizes are usually small, medium, large and sometimes an extra-large or family size. A small is enough for most visitors at lunch. Some places offer extras such as additional crisp onions, a separate bowl of sauce, or a fried egg or liver on top, though purists keep it simple.

The real skill is at the table. Pour a little tomato sauce over the top, add da'ah to taste (start with a teaspoon, as it is strong), then a few drops of shatta, and stir everything through so every spoonful has some of each layer. Koshari is eaten with a spoon, not bread, and many places also sell a small dish of rice pudding or a glass of something sweet to finish.

Where can you try the best koshari?

Downtown Cairo is the heartland of koshari, with large multi-storey koshari halls that serve thousands of bowls a day, but every Egyptian town has a busy local favourite.

Two long-established names are well known to Cairenes and travellers alike: Abou Tarek on Champollion Street Downtown, a multi-floor institution that serves koshari and very little else, and Koshary El Tahrir, a chain with branches across Cairo and beyond. Both were trading at the time of writing, but businesses change, so check before you go. Prices at these places are modest; a bowl usually costs a few Australian dollars at most (indicative, at the time of writing).

Outside Cairo, ask your guide or driver where they eat; there are good koshari shops in Luxor, Aswan and Alexandria. On a guided Cairo food tour, koshari is almost always one of the stops, and in a home cooking class you can learn to time all the layers yourself.

Look for a place with a crowd and a fast-moving queue: koshari components sit in big pots, and high turnover means they are fresh and hot. Our food safety guide explains why that matters.

Where did koshari come from?

Koshari became a Cairo street dish in the late 19th or early 20th century, and its exact origins are debated. A popular theory links the name and idea to kitchari (khichdi), the Indian dish of rice and lentils, possibly brought by soldiers or traders in the era of British influence. The pasta and tomato are usually credited to Italian influence in Egypt at around the same time. Rice and lentils cooked together, however, had been eaten in Egypt and the wider region long before.

Whatever the origin, koshari is thoroughly Egyptian today. It is also bound up with religious practice: because it contains no meat, eggs or dairy, it suits the long Coptic fasting periods, and some people believe this helped it spread.

Is koshari vegan?

Yes, koshari is normally vegan, as long as the onions and rice are cooked in vegetable oil rather than ghee (samna). Most commercial koshari restaurants use vegetable oil, but it is worth asking, particularly at home-style restaurants where ghee may be used for richness. It is gluten-heavy because of the pasta, and coeliacs should avoid it.

For a vegan traveller, koshari is one of the most reliable meals in Egypt; see our vegetarian and vegan guide for others.

How is koshari made at home?

Koshari is simple but involves several pots; Egyptian cooks prepare the components in parallel and assemble them at the end. The usual order is:

1. Fry thinly sliced onions slowly in plenty of oil until deep brown, then drain them; keep the oil.
2. Boil brown lentils until nearly tender, then cook them with rinsed rice in some of the onion oil and water until the rice is done.
3. Boil the macaroni (and any broken spaghetti) separately.
4. Make the sauce: fry garlic, add tomato paste or crushed tomatoes, cumin, chilli, salt and a splash of vinegar, and simmer.
5. Mix crushed garlic with vinegar, a little water and cumin for the da'ah.
6. Layer rice and lentils, pasta, sauce, chickpeas and onions in each bowl, and serve with da'ah and shatta on the side.