Egyptian Koshary

For the tomato sauce (can be prepared the day before and heated in microwave before serving):
Stir-fry 1 minced onion with 2 cloves minced garlic in a pot with 1 tablespoon of oil. When soft and translucent, add diced tomatoes. Add 1 cup water and simmer for 15 minutes. Blend the sauce in blender (or use immersion blender) until smooth and return to heat. Boil for 5 minutes to thicken a bit. Add salt and pepper to taste.

For the fried onions:
Slice 2-3 onions very thinly, season with 1 teaspoon salt, and mix well to separate the onion layers. Fry on medium high in the widest pan you have in at about 1/4 cup oil. Keep stirring until very dark brown, almost black. Remove the now fluffy and crunchy onions with a slotted spoon to absorbent paper. Don’t get rid of remaining oil—use it over pasta (see below). This process stinks up the house, so run your fan!

For the rice:
Sauté rice and 1 teaspoon salt in 1 teaspoon oil over high heat to coat and heat. Add 4 cups hot (boiling) water, bring to boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 20–30 minutes or until liquid is absorbed and rice is tender. (Or, just make rice the way you normally do, even in a rice cooker is fine. There’s nothing fancy about the rice.)

For the lentils:
Boil lentils in 4 cups water until tender, about 15–20 minutes, until tender. Strain and season with salt and pepper.

For the pasta:
Boil pasta with salt added to water until just al dente; don’t overcook. Rinse and strain, and mix with 1 tablespoon oil (fried onion oil if you have it!) and 1/2 teaspoon salt (optional).

For the chickpeas (the easiest part of the recipe!):
Open can and rinse under cold water.

For the hot paprika sauce (can be prepared the day before, no re-heating needed):
Heat 3 tablespoons oil in a small pan. Remove from heat, mix hot paprika, plus a pinch or two of crushed red pepper flakes, to your heat tolerance. Add 3 tablespoons of the prepared tomato sauce and mix well. Serve in a small dish as a side topping.

For the garlic lemon sauce (best prepared the day before, but can be made the day of):
Whisk together 3 minced garlic cloves with white vinegar, lemon juice, cumin powder and coriander powder. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve and serve in a small dish as a side topping.

To serve, layer your bowl or plate in this order: pasta, rice, lentils, tomato sauce, chickpeas, fried onions, hot paprika sauce (optional), lemon garlic sauce (optional).