Ethiopian Lentils With Berebere Spice Mix

"Recipe includes spice mix if you can't find it in the supermarkets."
 
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Ready In:
1hr 30mins
Ingredients:
19
Serves:
6-10
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ingredients

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directions

  • LENTILS:

  • Bring lentils and broth to boil and simmer 10 minutes.
  • Add chiles, onion, garlic, and Berebere spices. Cook covered for another 30 minutes, until most of liquid is absorbed.
  • Serve with ground black pepper to taste.
  • For a vegetarian meal, these lentils are good with a dollop of yogurt, brown rice and sliced tomatoes.
  • BEREBERE SPICE MIX:

  • Toast all the seeds and whole cloves in a small frying pan for 2 minutes, stirring constantly (open window or turn on the stove vent--it can smoke). Grind the spices in a spice grinder. If you are using pre-ground spices, ignore and go on to the next step.
  • Mix all remaining ingredients. Place in a tightly covered container and refrigerate. This mixture can used with many combinations of legumes, rice or vegetables.
  • NOTE: *OR: 1 bell pepper chopped + 14-oz can chopped green chiles.
  • NOTE TWO : There are two ways to make this berebere spice mix - with whole spices that you grind, or with powdered versions of the spices. The first way gives you a more powerful flavor, but it may be more practical the second way, particularly if you don't have a spice grinder.
  • Yield: 6 to 10 servings.

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Reviews

  1. Although I thought the flavour combination is fantastic and I am at this moment making up another big batch of it for using on just everything I am only giving it 3 stars because it was unbearably hot. I am very used to hot food and found it way too hot and my poor husband could barely eat it. I followed the spice mix directions ecaxctely. I subbed half the lentils for the same weight in sweet potato and because it was so spicy I added one zucchini, and some spinach and also lemon juice. I served it with rice. I am making it again because I like the spice combination but I am not adding any chili this time but will add it in depending what I am cooking. thanks for posting
     
  2. This was excellent. I used roasted sweet peppers in leu of chilies and it was great, not hot at all. The flavors were a perfect balance and took me back to Ethiopia. Delicious. I served it with tikal gomen and basmati. I will make this again and again, especially when my garden sweet peppers are abundant.
     
  3. I read the reviews first so I only used 2 tablespoons of the pepper flakes, I could probably do 3 and be just fine. Also, I felt like it was missing something so I added a small amount of brown sugar and yams for texture. It was wonderful and I will be making this regularly.
     
  4. Fantastic and spot on, though as I had some I drizzled some spice butter over the top and crumbled a little feta on as well. Yum.
     
  5. I love Ethiopian food, and this is a very good recipe. I took longer than 30 minutes to prepare (mainly roasting chiles), but it was worth it. I also added some hot peppers as the recipe is not very hot.
     
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Tweaks

  1. Although I thought the flavour combination is fantastic and I am at this moment making up another big batch of it for using on just everything I am only giving it 3 stars because it was unbearably hot. I am very used to hot food and found it way too hot and my poor husband could barely eat it. I followed the spice mix directions ecaxctely. I subbed half the lentils for the same weight in sweet potato and because it was so spicy I added one zucchini, and some spinach and also lemon juice. I served it with rice. I am making it again because I like the spice combination but I am not adding any chili this time but will add it in depending what I am cooking. thanks for posting
     
  2. I made a few changes--scaled down the amount, used pink lentils, used prepared berbere from the store, used sweet onion instead of red, and omitted the green chili but added some cayenne--but it was DELICIOUS! Next time, I'll make sure to have all the ingredients on hand and try it that way...thanks!
     

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