I work in a school that has a cafeteria unlike any you would find in the U.S. I've been told that the kitchen is used to cook for the employees of nearby hotels. Anyway, it's high quality, cooked from scratch, and the chefs come out to talk to us about food preferences. There are two cuisines cooked daily, an Indian one (very spicy!) and Middle Eastern. In addition, they have a salad bar, shawarma counter and pasta cooked to order while you wait. It's pretty amazing how good the food is and it is reasonably priced as well. My friends at work especially like an Egyptian dish called Kushari (spelled other ways as well). It is a mix of pasta, rice, lentils, and garbanzo beans (chickpeas) covered in a spicy tomato sauce and then covered with crispy fried onions. I've had it at the school and it is delicious, so I wanted to try cooking it at home. Of course, I could not follow the recipes exactly, impossible, so here's what I did:
Cooked brown rice and lentils separately and then mixed them together
Cooked brown garbanzo beans
Made tomato sauce to my taste and preference
Fried onions (in olive oil despite the instructions to NOT use olive oil)
Layered them as described
I didn't use pasta because I cannot begin to imagine pasta and rice in the same dish, it's redundant carbohydrates and I thought it would be unnecessary to the dish. Next time I might use it just to lighten up the dish.
I used brown rice instead of white because I prefer it.
The tomato sauce was of my own concoction and I can't even write down a recipe because it wasn't anything specific. It did include both fresh and sun dried tomatoes, cumin (everything here has plenty of cumin added and I love it!), some apple cider vinegar, and a bit of chili. Next time I want to make it spicier, more hot chili powder.
Traditionally, this is a layered dish with the pasta on the bottom, next a mixture of the rice and lentils, followed by a layer of cooked garbanzos, and then covered with the tomato sauce and those crispy fried onions. It's also a food with many variations and it seems to be perfectly fine to leave various ingredients out. I'll look for a recipe and post the url.
This one looks good:
http://www.missanthropistskitchen.com/2011/02/16/kushari-egyptian-meal/
And here's one from egyptianrecipes.net:
http://egyptianrecipes.net/koshari
For all you vegans, this is a good, naturally vegan food. Here's a photo of my finished dish.
Cooked brown rice and lentils separately and then mixed them together
Cooked brown garbanzo beans
Made tomato sauce to my taste and preference
Fried onions (in olive oil despite the instructions to NOT use olive oil)
Layered them as described
I didn't use pasta because I cannot begin to imagine pasta and rice in the same dish, it's redundant carbohydrates and I thought it would be unnecessary to the dish. Next time I might use it just to lighten up the dish.
I used brown rice instead of white because I prefer it.
The tomato sauce was of my own concoction and I can't even write down a recipe because it wasn't anything specific. It did include both fresh and sun dried tomatoes, cumin (everything here has plenty of cumin added and I love it!), some apple cider vinegar, and a bit of chili. Next time I want to make it spicier, more hot chili powder.
Traditionally, this is a layered dish with the pasta on the bottom, next a mixture of the rice and lentils, followed by a layer of cooked garbanzos, and then covered with the tomato sauce and those crispy fried onions. It's also a food with many variations and it seems to be perfectly fine to leave various ingredients out. I'll look for a recipe and post the url.
This one looks good:
http://www.missanthropistskitchen.com/2011/02/16/kushari-egyptian-meal/
And here's one from egyptianrecipes.net:
http://egyptianrecipes.net/koshari
For all you vegans, this is a good, naturally vegan food. Here's a photo of my finished dish.
We think this sounds yummy! ... but um... could solve the fossil fuel problem with some perhaps unsightly innovations :-y
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