Egypt
Egyptian cooking is the food of the street and the family table — the layered carbs of koshari, slow-simmered fava beans, green molokhia, and a warm pastry pudding. Here are twenty of its most iconic dishes.
Koshari
Egypt’s beloved national dish and ubiquitous street food — a hearty vegan stack of rice and lentils, pasta and chickpeas under a spiced tomato sauce, garlic-vinegar daqqa, and crispy onions.
Dukkah
The Egyptian nut-and-seed dip eaten with bread and olive oil — toasted sesame, nuts, and coriander and cumin seeds pounded to a coarse, crunchy blend.
Shorbet Ads
Egypt’s classic winter lentil soup — red lentils simmered soft with onion, carrot and cumin, blended smooth and served with lemon and crisp bread.
Ful Medames
Egypt’s iconic everyday breakfast — slow-simmered small fava beans mashed to a creamy stew and brightened with olive oil, lemon, garlic and cumin. Sold from carts nationwide.
Feteer Meshaltet
Egypt’s many-layered flaky pastry — a wet dough stretched paper-thin, folded again and again with melted ghee between every layer, then baked until crisp and golden.
Ta’ameya
Egypt’s signature falafel — made from split fava beans, not chickpeas, bound with leek and heaps of fresh herbs for a vivid green interior, then fried in a sesame crust.
Hawawshi
Egypt’s meat-stuffed bread — spiced minced beef packed with onion, pepper and herbs into baladi bread and baked hot until the crust crisps and the meat runs juicy.
Kebda Eskandarani
Alexandria’s famous fried liver — thin strips of beef liver cooked fast and fiery with garlic, cumin, chili and pepper, piled into a bread roll with tahini.
Molokhia
An iconic, vivid-green soup of finely minced jute mallow in a rich broth, finished with tasha — garlic and coriander fried in ghee — for its unmistakable aroma.
Kebab Halla
‘Meat in a pot’ — beef braised low and slow with a near-equal weight of sliced onions and warm spices until the onions melt into a thick, glossy sauce.
Macarona Béchamel
Egypt’s beloved baked pasta — penne layered with spiced ground beef under a thick blanket of béchamel, baked until the top sets golden.
Fattah
Egypt’s great feast dish — layers of toasted bread and rice under chunks of slow-boiled meat, all bound by a garlic-and-vinegar sauce and a garlicky tomato sauce.
Mahshi Koronb
Cherished comfort and celebration food — tender cabbage leaves rolled around herb-flecked rice, packed tight and slow-simmered in a tangy tomato broth. Representative of the whole mahshi family.
Mahshi
Stuffed vegetables — zucchini, peppers and small eggplants hollowed and packed with herb-flecked rice, then simmered upright in a tangy tomato broth.
Roz Meammar
Egypt’s rich baked rice — rice ‘loaded’ with milk, cream and butter and baked slowly in a clay pot until it sets, often over pieces of chicken.
Sayadeya
Alexandria’s fisherman’s rice — rice cooked in deeply browned onions and cumin until it turns dark and savory, served alongside fried or grilled fish.
Umm Ali
Egypt’s most beloved dessert — a warm, creamy bread pudding of flaky pastry soaked in sweetened milk, studded with nuts, coconut and raisins, then broiled with a cream top.
Basbousa
Egypt’s semolina cake — coarse semolina coated in ghee, baked golden, and drenched in cool syrup, with coconut in the batter and a nut on every diamond.
Roz bel Laban
Egyptian rice pudding — short-grain rice simmered in sweetened milk and thickened with cornstarch to a silky cream, served cold or with a broiled top.
Karkadeh
Egypt’s deep-red hibiscus drink — dried hibiscus flowers steeped and sweetened, served ice-cold in summer and at weddings, or hot in winter.
Middle Eastern home cooking, organized by country. Your family’s version is the one that counts.