Egypt was the big winner last week with 1600 views of my blog. No doubt most of these were by mistake and I am really sorry-not-sorry that all these Egyptians ended up on my site when they were looking for something else. Nonetheless, Egypt was the winner and as a prize I created one of their comfort food dishes, koshari.

Koshari with kale

Koshari is a lot like the Indian dish mujadara which you probably have never heard of either. Our daughter used to order it all the time in Mountain View at the Mediterranean Grill House. It is a strange gemisch of rice, lentils, pasta, and chickpeas with some tomato sauce and fried onions. The major spice is ground coriander. Koshari is vegan and ours turned out quite tasty.

Since I am always trying to cut back on the calories in a dish, I sautéed the onions until they were caramelized in about 1/2 teaspoon of olive oil instead of frying them. I also added kale so our dinner would seem healthier. John, who was in charge of the lentils and rice upped the amount of coriander he used which made them really delicious. I added sriracha to the tomato sauce for more zing. You use a lot of pots and pans to make koshari. I have a 5-burner stovetop and every burner was in use. If you would like to try making it, this is the recipe I used. Koshari is especially useful in using up leftover rice or lentils.

Thanks, Egypt!