Kosheri to Tete

Ingredients for 4 servings:

• 4 large onions
• 75 g lentils, brown
• 300 g rice
• 250 g pasta, short macaroni
• 500 g tomato puree or 80 g tomato paste
• 8 garlic cloves
• oil
• salt and pepper
• cumin

Instructions

Working time approx. 30 minutes; Total time approx. 30 minutes

Egyptian dish with lentil rice and macaroni

Sauté 1 onion until translucent, then add the washed lentils and sauté them briefly. Add water until the lentils are two fingers wide in the pan. Let the whole thing simmer for about 20 minutes. In the meantime, you can press the garlic cloves and roast them in a little oil in another pan. Then add the tomato puree/paste and water. If you have paste, add a lot more water, of course. It needs to simmer for a while, about 20 minutes, and the sauce should be thin. Season with salt, pepper, and cumin. In the meantime, you can roast the other onions until they turn dark brown. Add the rice to the lentils, top up with more water and salt, then continue cooking. You need to add enough water, which takes practice, otherwise the rice can become too mushy, so again it should be about two fingers wide above the surface of the rice. The rice and lentils must also be cooked at the same time. I calculate about 20 minutes for the lentils plus 25 minutes for the rice and lentils (total time 45 minutes for the lentils). It depends on the variety. Mountain lentils take longer than the slightly greenish lentils. Cook the macaroni until tender. Then serve: lentil rice, then the macaroni, then fried onions and then tomato sauce. The restaurant in Egypt also serves various sauces which I unfortunately don’t know which ones; I think one is a bit spicier and the other hot. Very inexpensive and filling dish! Disadvantage: you need four pots and pans during cooking and the first time my rice was sticky and the lentils a bit hard. So stick to the cooking times exactly (check the packaging).