I love African food because they have a good vegetarian options in their menu. Unfortunately, there is no African restaurant where I live.
After an intensive online research, I found some sites with delicious recipes. So I decided to make them myself.
First, I bought the Ethiopian sauce already in a jar from Eleni's Kitchen (I tried this at the NW Veg Festival 2013 in Portland, OR) at a local health food store:
and the mix to make that famous and delicious injera bread:
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| GF Injera mix |
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| GF Injera mix |
To make the injera, I just followed the instructions in the bag.
The four dishes shown here are:
1. Miser Wot (Red Lentil Stew)
Since I had the sauce already I just cooked one cup of red lentils until tender and added the sauce.
You can find the original recipe at Leafy Greens and Me blog.
2. Gomen (Ethiopian collard greens)
I found a good recipe at Ethiopian Food WordPress blog. Instead of boiling the collards, I steamed them and added more garlic.
Ingredients:
- 1 pound of collard greens or kale
- 1 medium onion chopped
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2-3 garlic cloves, chopped
- ½ teaspoon ginger powder
Strip the leafy greens of the vegetable from the thick spine that runs through each leaf, using nothing of the spines.
Coarsely chop the greens, and then steam them until they’re very soft and tender.
When they’re ready, drain the water, but reserve just a little for the next step.
In a new pot, cook the onions and garlic in the olive oil for a few minutes until the onions are transparent. If necessary, add just a little water to keep them from burning. Now add the ginger, stir the mixture, and cook it for a minute more.
Add the well-cooked greens and just a little bit of water. Let the greens, onions and spices simmer until the water begins to cook off and the greens are very soft. You can always pour off excess water when the greens are ready or add water if they become to dry as you cook them.
3. Kik Alicha (Ethiopian Split Pea Stew)
I found this recipe at Vegan Richa which was very simple. I made it without the rice.
Ingredients:
- 1/4 cup dry split yellow peas, soak overnight
- 1/4 cup dry split green peas, soak overnight
- 1 1/2 cups water
- 2 teaspoons oil
- 1/2 red onion, chopped
- 4-5 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 teaspoons ginger, minced
- 1/3 teaspoon turmeric powder
- black pepper, to taste
Add a 1/2 teaspoon berbere spice blend for a spicier Wat version or add a chopped Serrano pepper.
Directions:
Soak the split peas overnight or at least 2 hours in warm water, drain and rinse. Cook them until peas have softened to the desired consistency.
In a deep pan, add oil, add onions, ginger and garlic and cook stirring occasionally, until onions are translucent (add chopped Serrano or Jalapeno if using). Add the turmeric and mix well.
Add cooked split peas. Taste and adjust salt and spice if needed.
If desired, blend the mix with a immersion blender.
4. Tikil Gomen (Ethiopian cabbage)
I got this recipe from The Berbere Diaries. It ended delicious but I altered the quantity and order of the ingredients.
Ingredients:
- 2 TB extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 medium onions, chopped
- 2-3 cloves garlic finely chopped
- 2 medium carrots finely grated
- 1 head green cabbage finely chopped
- 1 Yukon potato cooked in microwave and sliced into 1/4 inch pieces
- 6 scallions (white and some green parts) chopped
- 1-2 tsp berbere spice mix
In a medium pot, add the oil and cook the onions and garlic stirring occasionally, on medium/medium-high heat until they start to soften and turn translucent (about 5-7 minutes)
Add the grated carrots, chopped cabbage, and scallions and cook until tender. Cabbage is watery so there won't be any need to add more oil to the pan.
To save time, instead of cooking the potato in the water as the original recipe stated, i cooked it in the microwave.
Enjoy!
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| Tikil Gomen |
With some leftovers from the first round, I added this new one to my plate, making four dishes:
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| All four dishes:
Miser Wot (Red Lentil Stew), Gomen (Ethiopian
collard greens), and Kik
Alicha (Ethiopian Split Pea Stew)
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