A bowl starts with rice, lentils, macaroni and vermicelli. On top go a tomato sauce sharpened with garlic, chickpeas, fried onions, and garlic vinegar or hot sauce if you want them. Traditionally made, it has no animal products at all. Alexandria has its own version with yellow lentils and a fried egg.
Where it came from is an open question. The most repeated story says it arrived from India during the British period, pointing to the similarity between koshari and khichri, a rice and lentil dish. Some accounts credit soldiers, others Italian residents for the pasta and tomato. Yet an 1853 travel account by Richard Burton already describes a koshari-like breakfast in Suez, decades before the British occupation began in 1882.
UNESCO's 2025 listing made koshari Egypt's first culinary entry. The organization pointed to its role in social cohesion, since people from every background eat it.