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    Pasta · Recipe · Egypt · Reference page

    Kushari

    كشري

    Egypt's everyday dish of rice, lentils and small macaroni, topped with a spiced tomato sauce and fried onions. Tereza Shehata's version for SBS Food's Egyptian Safari serves four to six; UNESCO inscribed koshary and its practices on its intangible heritage list in 2025.

    Kushari in a blue-grey bowl: rice, elbow macaroni and small flattened brown lentils under tomato sauce and crisp browned onions.
    Editorial illustration of the documented recipe; not a photograph of a kitchen-tested result.
    Servings
    4
    Preparation
    30 min
    Cooking
    1 h 45
    Total
    2 h 15
    Difficulty
    Easy

    Equipment

    • Deep pan or fryer for the onions
    • Three saucepans (sauce, rice, lentils) and a pot for the pasta
    • Frying pan; large serving dish
    Servings4

    Ingredients

    • Crispy onions

    • Sauce

    • Rice

    • Lentils and pasta

    • Caramelised onions

    Shopping list

    Method

    1. Deep-fry the sliced onions in hot oil until dark brown. Drain on paper and let them cool and crisp.

      Why The crisp onions are the dish's signature topping; dark brown, not black.

    2. For the sauce, soften the diced onion in the olive oil over medium heat, add the garlic and fry until pale brown. Stir in the tomato paste and baharat and season. Add the water and simmer 15–20 minutes, until reduced by half.

      Timer · 20 min20:00

    3. In another pan, fry the rice in the 2 tablespoons of olive oil with the salt for 2 minutes. Add the 500 ml water, bring to the boil, cover and simmer on low heat for 15 minutes.

      Timer · 17 min17:00

    4. Simmer the lentils in their 500 ml water until tender and drain. Boil the macaroni in salted water until al dente and drain. Cook the sliced large onions in the 80 ml olive oil until soft and caramelised.

    5. Reheat the sauce. Toss the hot macaroni with a little olive oil in a large serving dish, add the rice, lentils and caramelised onions and mix. Sprinkle with baharat, spoon over the sauce and top with the crispy onions.

    Substitutions

    • Green lentils → Black (brown) lentils, which UNESCO's description names; cooking time is similar.
    • Baharat → A mix of ground cumin, coriander and a little cinnamon.

    Common mistakes

    • Cooking rice, lentils and pasta together: they finish at different times. Cook them separately and combine at the end.
    • Pale crispy onions: they go soft in the sauce. Fry until dark brown.

    Storage & reheating

    The parts keep 3 days in the fridge, stored separately; reheat the sauce and grains until hot and fry fresh onions if you can.

    Safety

    Deep-frying: never fill the pan more than a third. Cool leftover rice within an hour.

    Allergens

    Gluten

    Check labels: stock, bacon and sauces can contain further allergens.

    Dietary

    vegan · vegetarian

    An everyday dish on the heritage list

    In 2025, at the 20th session of its intergovernmental committee, UNESCO inscribed Koshary, daily life dish and practices associated with it on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, for Egypt. UNESCO describes a dish of simple, affordable ingredients (rice, pasta, black lentils and fried onions) to which diners add vinegar, garlic and hot sauce, and notes that the know-how passes informally, especially from mothers to daughters, with regional variations.

    Tereza Shehata's recipe uses green lentils and a spiced tomato sauce, and adds caramelised as well as crisp onions. It is one household's version among many.

    [1][2]

    Everything cooked apart

    Kushari is an assembly. The rice is fried in oil and steamed; the lentils simmer separately; the macaroni boils in salted water; one batch of onions is deep-fried until dark and crisp and another cooked slowly until soft and sweet. The sauce, tomato paste with garlic and baharat, simmers until reduced by half. All are combined only at the end, so each keeps its texture.

    [2]

    How it connects

    Place

    • origin Egypt In preparation

    Recipe

    Story

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