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Atakilt Wat – Ethiopian Cabbage Potato Carrots. Easy spiced side full of amazing flavor. free of Dairy, egg, corn, soy, yeast, nut, gluten, grain.
Seattle has an abundance of Ethiopian food. After Indian, Ethiopian is always the next choice when we want some spice and deep flavors in the meal. The veggie platter filled with 2 to 4 different simmered lentil dishes, greens, simmered okra, cabbage pcarrot wat, all served up over the huge Injera. There are several Ethiopian restaurants in Seattle. A lot of them however are usually a miss when it comes to maintaining the taste and quality of the food. Or maybe I am picky 🙂 Seattle-lites, what is your favorite Ethiopian restaurant?
Atakilt Wat/ Atkilt wot is a cabbage side that is so close to the Indian cabbage dishes and yet has its own flavor profile. The traditional recipe may or may note use uses niter kibeh which is butter/ghee slow-infused with whole spices like cardamom, cinnamon, fenugreek, cloves, ginger, garlic etc. by cooking everything on low heat for hours. You can make niter qibe/ kibeh with coconut or olive oil(see my second book for a recipe) and use about a Tbsp in this recipe instead of all the spices and oil. Since I don’t usually have the infused oil ready, I add the spices to oil in the second step to infuse the oil while cooking (indian food style) for my interpretation of atakilt wat. You can omit the spices. Cook the dish at lower heat for best results. Serve with Ethiopian flat breads or other flat breads and lentil stews.
More Ethiopian from the blog.
Steps:
cook the onion, garlic, ginger for 5 minutes.
Add all the spices and cook to infuse the oil to make a quick niter kibeh.
Add the veggies, cover and cook until tender.
Serve hot.
Video:
Atakilt Wat - Ethiopian Cabbage Potato Carrots. Vegan Gluten-free Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 tsp olive oil or vegan butter, divided
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tsp minced ginger
- 1 green chili, chopped (optional)
- 1/2 cup chopped onion
- 1/4 tsp cumin powder
- 1/2 to 3/4 tsp turmeric powder
- 1/4 tsp fenugreek seeds or powder
- 1/4 tsp cardamom powder
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon powder
- 1/8 tsp cloves powder
- a generous dash of black pepper
- 3/4 cup sliced carrots
- 2 medium potatoes, chopped, 1.5 loaded cups
- 1/2 head of cabbage, finely chopped
- 1/2 tsp salt
Instructions
- In a large skillet, add 1 tsp oil and heat at medium-low. Once hot, Add garlic, ginger, chili, and onion. Mix, cook for 4 minutes.
- Add the cumin, turmeric, fenugreek seeds, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves and black pepper. Mix and cook for 3 minutes to infuse the oil and to continue cooking the onion to golden.
- Add the carrots, potato and mix well. Add cabbage and 1/4 tsp salt. Mix well, cover and cook for 15 minutes. Stir once in between.
- Add 1/4 tsp or more salt, and 1 tsp olive oil. Mix in. Deglaze at this time with water if needed Cover and Cook for another 15 minutes or until the potatoes are tender. *
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Wow!! What an incredible combination of flavors! I’ve never made an Ethiopian dish. I just made yours and it came out fantastic. I can’t stop eating it. Thank you for the recipe. Now I want to check out your other recipes!
Awesome! thanks!
This recipe is incredibly delicious. Thank you so much for sharing.
Thanks!
Just made this dish. Absolutely delicious. Mine was more carmelized than yours looks in the pics. Today, I went to an Ethiopian supermarket and bought berbere and their pepper spice mixture, as well as a bag of the large oval injeras. Earlier in the day, I made the spicy red lentils in Kittee Berns’s book “Teff Love”, which I heard about via your site. I put together my version of a veggie plate: on the injera went a large helping of the Atakilt Wat, some of the lentils, a green salad, and some sauteed red chard (an Italian recipe). All of this would have been amazing, except I had already eaten an early dinner. This was dinner #2. So, I’m really looking forward to leftovers tomorrow, and the next day, and…. 😉 Brendan In Toronto
Awesome! that sounds like a fabulous dinner.
This is one of my favorite recipes! I use fresh toasted and ground cumin and cardamom seeds
Awesome!!
I’m making this right now. You had me at cardamom! I definitely believe there are not enough recipes with cardamom 🙂 The kitchen smells wonderful and the taste I swiped from the pan was YUMMMY! Thanks for sharing it.
yay!
I always enjoy your recipes. The amount of flavor is always surprising. It’s also really nice that you use actual measurements –like 1 cup — instead of saying 1 potato!! This recipe is packed with flavor and I love that it is nutritious and even better: inexpensive!
Awesome! Thank you Lauren!
What a fantastic recipe! I prepared this dish for the first time the other day and enjoyed every bite. Thank you for posting.
Awesome!!
Do you think Napa Cabbage would be ok for this? That’s what I have in the fridge right now.
Also, is there a “print recipe only” type of button that I missed? If not, could you add one? I love your recipes!
Napa cabbage might work. Cut it larger and cook for less time as it might shrink a lot.
There is a print button on the recent recipes and i keep adding it to the older pages. I will add it to this recipe now. You should see it in a few minutes.
This recipe is not authentic Ethiopian at all, but it seems like an interesting twist on alicha! Good job. Also cooking with extra virgin olive oil might not be a good choice, it burns easily an changes the taste of the dish. A more neutral flavor oil might work better.
It’s so funny I came across this recipe on FB today. I love your website and have bookmarked so many of your recipes. I have many of my own recipes for atakilt wat and other Ethiopian recipes since I LOVE Ethiopian food. What made me laugh (when I saw this) is that I have plans to get lunch from our favorite Ethiopian place today (Queen of Sheeba in Tampa) and this is one of the dishes I will be ordering (they actually call it tikil gomen, but it is basically the same thing) – as well as ye misr wot, ye kik alecha, and keiy sire.
I’m definitely going to give your recipe a try. I LOVE this! So yummy!!! Thank you for always providing so many delicious recipes! 🙂