This simple Egyptian koshari recipe is a great way to travel the world right from home. It’s a perfect recipe to both make and eat with kids!

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Egypt week was so interactive with kids, and the food was no different. Koshari is an Egyptian street food with rice, pasta, legumes, and sauce. Ordinarily, it takes a few more steps, but we streamlined the recipe to make it really simple to make for a weeknight meal. This Egyptian koshari recipe is not only delicious and satisfying, but is also simple enough that kids can help make it!

What Is Koshari?

Koshari is a great way to introduce kids to some global foods that still feel familiar to most children. It’s a street food that’s available throughout the country, and is a very popular national dish.

Koshari is a carb bomb with both rice and pasta (which most kids love). It’s also slathered with saucy tomato goodness. This makes it perfect for kids because it has ingredients that are familiar to many little ones, with slightly different flavors. It also has some protein in it with chickpeas and lentils. The cumin sauce isn’t always used, but it’s very simple to make and we loved the added punch of flavor.

A Simplified Egyptian Recipe for Kids

It’s also one of those assembly line recipes, which means it’s a great meal for picky eaters since everyone can assemble their own! That also means it looks like a lot of ingredients, but is actually very simple and straightforward to put together. After looking at a few different recipes, I streamlined everything to make it into a very simple weeknight meal for families, and one with which kids can easily help.

Below is our simple Egyptian koshari recipe we used while doing an Egypt virtual tour for the week!

If you’d like to see how we put it all together, here’s a video of how we did it!

Cook the World: Easy Egyptian Koshari Recipe

Adapted from HERE and HERE

Easy Egyptian Koshari Recipe with Kids

This delicious, carb-heavy Egyptian street food is perfect for making a global dinner with kids!

Print Recipe

Prep Time 30

Course Main Course

Cuisine Egyptian

Ingredients

Koshari

2 cups dry white rice, cooked according to package directions
2 cups elbow macaroni, cooked according to package directions Mix with 1 T olive oil after cooking so it doesn't stick
2 15-oz cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
2 cans brown lentils
1/2 tsp coriander
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 contianer fried onions

Tomato Sauce

1 Tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, grated
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1 28-oz can tomato sauce
salt & pepper to taste
1 Tbsp distilled white vinegar

Cumin Sauce

1 Tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp ground cumin
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup vinegar (I used red wine for more flavor, but white also works)
salt, to taste

Instructions

Make Tomato Sauce

Heat oil in medium sized saucepan. Add in onion and cook until translucent, about 4-5 minutes. Add in garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.
Add in coriander and red pepper. Toast until fragrant, about 1 minute.
Stir in tomato sauce and a pinch of salt. Cook over medium heat until thickened, about 10-15 minutes. Stir in vinegar and keep warm.

Make Cumin Sauce

Heat oil in a small saucepan. Add garlic and cumin and toast until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
Add vinegar, water, and salt. Stir and heat before serving.

Assemble Koshari

Heat chickpeas and lentils.
Mix coriander, salt, and pepper into the lentils.
Assemble on a plate with different areas for rice, pasta, chickpeas, and lentils. Pour on tomato and cumin sauces or serve on the side. Top with fried onions.