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Ye’difin Misser Alicha – Lentils in Garlic-Ginger Sauce. Easy Ethiopian Lentils. Vegan Gluten-free Soy-free Recipe
Teff Love: Adventures in Vegan Ethiopian Cooking
And this book demystifies all that. From the basics about the spices, making your own berbere and seasoned oil to many authentic and fusion dishes. The seasoned oil is highly addictive. It’s amazing how a few spices that I use quite often, in a combination that I have not used before (nigella and carom seeds!), in a method I have not used often (slow simmered instead of the usual high heat tempering in Indian food), lead to a deep complex flavor.
I made the berbere paste and seasoned oil and the planned out the menu for the next day! Mushrooms in rosemary onion wine sauce, Red lentils in spicy sauce, Ethiopian roasted Brussels sprouts and Brown lentils in flavorful garlic-ginger sauce and freshly made Injera!
That was one feast! I have many recipes that I have book marked to try like the Awaze tofu, azifa salad, butecha, tofu dumplings. many more lentil and split pea dishes and the teff brownies!
Ethnic food makes eating lentil and vegetable heavy vegan food easier. Or so I think because you know I love Indian food for the same reason. It is flavorful. It is easy or gets easy with just a little initial pantry and time investment. It is generally flexible to play around with once you get a hang of it. The spices are generally shared over other cuisines like Indian and Mediterranean. I did not have to go to any special store for the book. I already have an extensive Indian pantry :). I also had teff from my gf baking experiments.
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I have been putting the seasoned oil in our Tofu scrambles and simple weekday dals! It is just so fabulous. Chapters include tips, equipment, Grocery list (which is great to quickly stock your pantry), Foundations, Breakfast, Appetizers, Spicy sauces, mild sauces, legume based smooth sauces, cooked and cold vegetables, injera based dishes, Stir fries, Dumplings and veggie protein, Beverages and Sweets.
If you are sensitive to spices or food that has many spices and oil, use the seasoned oil within a week.
If you haven’t tried Ethiopian before, serve it differently. Serve the drier lentils with roasted veggies and cooked grains, serve the saucy lentils as a soup with crackers or croutons.
Kittee with some fabulous food!
I also made the Injera from scratch from the book. The whole ersho sourdough and the days and days of fermentation. Towards the end, I added a bit of regular white flour instead of all teff for the last day of fermentation and got the beautifully porous Injera. Soft, delicious and perfect.
Thankfully I can get as much Injera as I want. I’ve got a couple of Ethiopian restaurants within a 10 block radius!
Injera! See them exclamations, Clearly very excited. I used my Dosa crepe pan to make them and it worked out perfectly.
Perfect carrier for all that Ethiopian food. It takes some patience to make Ethiopian, but it is all worth the effort. I share the recipe of lentils with flavorful garlic ginger sauce Ye’difin Misser Alicha today!
Ye’difin Misser Alicha
from the book Teff Love: Adventures in Vegan Ethiopian Cooking by Kittee Berns (printed with permission from the Book Publishing Co.)
Ye'difin Misser Alicha - Lentils in Garlic-Ginger Sauce Recipe.
Ingredients
- 1 cup dried green or brown lentils
- 6 cups water
- ¼ onion, minced (½ cup)
- 3 tablespoons Ye’qimem Zeyet, page 25 or extra-virgin olive oil
- ½ teaspoon salt, plus more if desired
- 6 cloves garlic, pressed or grated (1 tablespoon)
- 2 teaspoons peeled and grated fresh ginger
- 6 fresh basil leaves, optional
- ½ teaspoon ground turmeric
- 1½ cups reserved lentil cooking water or Sleepy Vegetable Stock, page 38, plus more if desired
- 1 to 2 jalapeno chiles, seeded, veined, and sliced into thin half-moons
Instructions
- Put the lentils and water in a large saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat. Stir to keep the lentils from sticking to the bottom of the pot. Decrease the heat to medium-high and simmer, skimming off and discarding any foam that forms with a large spoon. Cook uncovered, stirring occasionally, until the lentils are tender but still firm, 10 to 12 minutes. Drain the lentils and reserve 2 cups of the cooking water.
- While the lentils cook, put the onion, Ye’qimem Zeyet, and salt in a large saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until soft and translucent (don’t let the onion brown), about 7 minutes. Add the garlic, ginger, optional basil, and turmeric and cook, stirring almost constantly, for 3 minutes.
- Stir in the drained lentils and 1 ½ cups of the reserved cooking water. Increase the heat to high and bring to a boil. Decrease the heat to medium and simmer uncovered, stirring frequently, until the lentils are very soft but not mushy and the liquid has reduced and thickened, 10 to 15 minutes. Add the jalapeno chiles during the last 5 minutes of cooking. If the mixture is too thick, add up to ½ cup additional lentil cooking water as needed to thin. Season to taste with additional salt if desired. Discard the basil before serving.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
The Publishers are giving away a copy of Teff Love to one of the blog readers! (within US). Ends 21st March.
To Enter, please leave me a comment about what do you find most intimidating about ethnic cuisines like Ethiopian.
The giveaway is over. Denise, you get a copy of Teff Love!
Oh, how I love Ethiopian food! Luckily, here in Denver, we have a large Ethiopian population, which in turn means we have several excellent Ethiopian restaurants to choose from. I think one of the most challenging things about cooking any ethnic/traditional cuisine is sourcing ingredients. Often, names of spices and herbs vary (even between provinces/geographic areas), and some are only available in the country of origin. The internet has made multicultural cooking accessible to far more people, however. A great example of an ingredient difficult to source would be teff. Not easy to find!
Oooh, what a wonderful book! The most intimidating about ethnic cuisine and Ethiopian food is fermentation! I always worry if I did it wrong!
I used to be intimidated by the vast amount of ingredients, especially spices.
I often find the deceptive simplicity of ethnic cuisines like Ethiopian to be the most intimidating! When I first started experimenting with Ethiopian cooking I was shocked to find a dish like keysir relies on no exotic spice blend but only a slow cooked mixture of beets, carrots, potatoes, onions, oil, salt and garlic. With such an uncomplicated combination of everyday ingredients the success of the dish really relies most on patience!
Oh yummm! We have a great Ethiopian food restaurant nearby but I would love to start making it at home!
Making injera definitely sounds intimidating to me, but I’m always looking for more lentil recipes!
I am pretty adventurous when it comes to trying different foods. My hesitation with Ethiopian food, in general, is whether or not I’d be able to find the proper ingredients and whether or not after all of the effort I would like it well enough to finish it. There is an Ethiopian restaurant in a city near us so I may try that before diving in on my own. It looks delicious!
The most intimidating aspect for me is shopping for new and unfamiliar ingredients. But when I do, the end result is always worth it!
Making injera is what scares me most. I LOVE LOVE LOVE Ethiopian food and am scared to try it all from scratch. Good thing I have a fantastic restaurant near me.
I think scariest part of cooking Ethopian food is the teff. I’ve dabbled with a few dishes, but I never made the teff to go with them. The fermenting looks like it would be fun, but I would want solid instructions to work with for the first time.