Recipe: Kushari/Kosherie (Middle Eastern Pasta, Lentils, and Rice) 13 September 2007 1:27 pm
Posted by Tracy in : cooking, eating, friends, recipes, restaurants, tea, vegan, vegetarian , trackbackMmm, kushari. I promised y’all comfort food suitable for enjoying after a test, and I’m happy to deliver this recipe, oh yes indeed. I first tasted this dish at a family style dinner at Iraila Mediterranean Rustica. Their theme that month was Mediterranean fast food, and they translated a whole host of delicious street foods into classy but not snooty sit-down dining, and it was absolutely brilliant on more levels than I can really express. Months later, I stumbled across a recipe for “Middle Eastern Lentils & Pasta” in my beloved Moosewood Restaurant New Classics, and realized that it was that thing I hadn’t been able to stop eating at Iraila, only they’d spelled it kushari then and Moosewood spelled it kosherie.
Backtrack to a description of the dish in question: It is delicious. I have to say that first, because it is almost absurdly simple and when I tell you “it’s pasta, lentils, and rice with spicy tomato sauce and fried onions” that might not sound to you like pure awesomeness but believe me, it is. Especially if you happen to have a lot of delicious homegrown tomatoes around that desperately need to be converted into sauce before they melt into a pile of overripeness on your kitchen counter or outside on the vine. Which was my situation last week Wednesday, one I am glad to say I made the very most of. Here’s what I did.
Kushari/Kosherie Sauce
Freely adapted from “Middle Eastern Lentils & Pasta,” Moosewood Restaurant New Classics, pp. 254-55.
What You Need
- 4-6 cups chopped tomatoes (canned will do)
- 2-4 cloves garlic (at least)
- at least 1 fresh green chile (but I wanted more the last time I made this, and I have also had great results substituting 1/2 to 1 full teaspoon cayenne)
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 to 1 teaspoon each cumin and coriander (optional but awesome)
- blender
- medium saucepan and stirring implement
What You Do
(Okay, this is actually embarrassingly simple, but I could not resist the power of Liz and Matthew asking me for the recipe.)
Combine all the sauce ingredients in the blender. Purée until smooth. Transfer to your saucepan and cook for 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until reduced to a nice thick sauce. Sample frequently because it is so delicious.
Serve on a mix of cooked green or brown lentils, long-grain white rice, and elbow macaroni or other small pasta, topped with crispy fried onions (the only remotely hard thing about this dish is that it uses all four burners on the stove if you want to make everything at once and don’t have a rice cooker, but there’s no one stopping you from making the sauce ahead of time or using leftover cooked rice). You can make the presentation fancier by arranging the pasta, lentils, and rice into separate mounds and drizzling with the sauce (never use all the sauce; leave some on the side for dressing the dish to taste and maybe having enough left over for another meal). Sprinkle the onions on top and use all your self-control to admire it for a second:
before mixing the whole mess together and eating way more than you thought physically possible. I highly recommend green tea with mint as a delicious beverage accompaniment to kushari and other Middle Eastern treats.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Mmm, kushari. If you’ve ever found yourself caught in the epic battle of rice versus pasta:
and didn’t want to compromise on, say, rice noodles, then you really should do yourself a favor and give this dish a shot. (Rice vs. Pasta image from a super-awesome t-shirt by John Allison of the even more super-awesome web comic Scary Go Round, which you should definitely check out if you don’t read it already.)
Comments»
Thanks! It sounds like a great end-of-the-week-and-I’m-too-tired-to-think dish. Which I’ll need right about….now.
I made this tonight, though mine was a little closer to Joy Of Cooking’s version (better fit for available ingredients). Delicious!
My daughter had this on her trip to Egypt..Thnk you so much for the info on how to make it..
[...] occurs to me that a tablespoon or so of harissa would be a good quick and dirty way to season kushari sauce. Maybe it’s just the sleep deprivation talking, but I think that might be brilliant. [...]