Ethiopian Recipes

Ethiopian recipes and cuisine consist of injera flatbread topped with spicy meat strews. The stews, called wat, are typically made with vegetables and very spicy meat. The meat can be beef, lamb or chicken. Wat is served atop a large sourdough flatbread, called injera.

I love trying new cuisines. My goal is to try a different nation's most popular dishes a few times a year. You can make it a family affair. We were able to sample different foods and gain an education on the cuisine and culture of a new country.

Running out of ideas, I decided to spin our world globe and prepare the national dishes of whatever country my finger landed on. My finger landed on the country of Ethiopia.

I hesitated. I wanted a redo. What did I know about Ethiopian food? With a little trepidation, I opened Google and began my research. Boy, was I in for a wonderful surprise! Ethiopian food is similar to Indian cuisine - with an extra kick. More on that later.

About Ethiopia

Ethiopia rewards visitors with stunning scenery, great food, world-renowned coffee, fascinating history, and incredibly diverse landscape and culture. It is the "roof of Africa" with mountains over 14,700 feet high. Paintings and crafts are characterized by the North African and Middle Eastern traditional influences combined with Christian culture. The history of Ethiopian Jews goes back millennia. Ethiopian Jews, known as Beta Israel, established there in 325 CE.

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Ethiopia is half the size of Alaska. It is the second most populous nation in Africa, after Nigeria. It has the fastest growing economy in the region. The country is also one of the poorest, with a per capita income of $850.

Ethiopian Cuisine

Orthodox Christians, Ethiopian Jews and Ethiopian Muslims avoid eating pork or shellfish, for religious reasons. Most do not eat pork as it is considered unclean. Many Ethiopians abstain from eating certain meats, and mostly eat vegetarian and vegan foods." (Wikipedia)

A typical dish consists of injera bread and spicy stews called a wat. Wat are made with beef, lamb, or vegetables. Vegetarian wat are made with various legumes, such as lentils. Due in part to the brief Italian occupation, pasta is frequently available throughout Ethiopia, including rural areas. Coffee plays a large part of Ethiopian culture and cuisine too.

Ethiopian Recipes

We wanted a broad variety of dishes to sample. The goal was to make two main dishes and three side dishes. And I'd be remiss if I didn't make the injera sourdough flatbread. The two main dishes were Siga Tibs (a very spicy stir fried beef and jalapeno stew) and Sanbat Wat (the Jewish version of the Doro Wat, Ethiopia's national dish) made with chicken and hardboiled eggs. The three sides we made were a delicious Ethiopian eggplant dip, Ye’assa Wat (a spicy Ethiopian fish stew) and Gomen Wot (Ethiopian Collard Greens with Chickpeas)

The Spices of Ethiopia

Berbere is a combination of powdered chili pepper, cardamom, fenugreek, coriander, cloves, ginger, nutmeg, cumin and allspice. The blend is an important ingredient that adds flavor to many varied dishes like chicken stews and baked fish dishes.

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Mitmita is a powdered seasoning mix used in Ethiopian cuisine. The blend contains ground birdseye chili peppers (piri piri), cardamom seed, cloves and salt. You'll notice the spice blend is orange-red in color and occasionally includes cinnamon, cumin and ginger.

Gursha - Ethiopian Hospitality

The proper way to eat is using your right hand. Strip off a piece of injera, wrap it around some wat and eat it. It is common to do the same and feed someone else as an act of friendship and love. Ethiopians call this a gursha. The larger the gursha, the stronger the friendship or bond. An episode of the Simpson's called "The Food Wife" featured Ethiopian cuisine as a plot point.