Ethiopian Food

I’ve been hankering for good Ethiopian food. Since Denver is a haul from our house, I had to settle for what I could make in my kitchen.

I’m still in search of berbere. I attempted to make my own with a recipe from this cookbook, but had only a few of the MANY ingredients it called for. If anyone knows where I can get this magical spice, please, please let me know!

I did create a dish that I will be making over and over again. My sister, who lived in Ethiopia for many years and is an expert on Ethiopian food, told me that it tasted authentic. That was the highest compliment I could have received.

We don’t have injera so used brown rice and tortillas to eat it with.

Here’s my version of the potato, carrot yummy stew (Dinich Wat–though I left out the cabbage because I didn’t have any in my kitchen)

1/2 c olive oil
4 carrots, thinly sliced
1 onion, diced very fine
1 tsp sea salt (I used more to taste)
1 tsp red pepper (we like spice so this was a good medium that the kids could still eat)
black pepper to taste
1 tsp cumin (ground)
1 1/2 tsp tumeric (ground)
3 large sweet potatoes, peeled, diced into 1 inch cubes
1 can chickpeas (garbanzo beans)

Heat olive oil in skillet. Cook carrots and onions in hot oil for around 5 minutes.

Stir in salt, pepper, cumin, red pepper, tumeric and can of chick peas (don’t drain). Cook for about 20 minutes. Add potatoes; cover and cook until potatoes are soft, around 30 minutes. I had to add about 1/4 c water to make sure potatoes were cooked all the way through.

Enjoy!