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• 4 t olive oil
• 2 c onion
• 1 t garlic
• 1 T ginger
• 2 T berbere — use my recipe for berbere spice mix rather than the one on the captious vegetarian site.
• 2 c split red lentils
• 6 c broth/water — i usually use half broth, half water. all water is OK. do not use full strength better than boulion broth–your berbere will just taste like soup.
• 1 T tomato paste — can sub chopped tomatoes, see below.
• salt

chop the onion, and saute in oil. once onion starts to brown, add garlic and ginger. once almost ready, add tomato paste, stir it in, then add berbere, and cook for another minute. add to a pot with broth, lentils, and cook until lentils are done.

notes:

tomato paste is really better than chopped tomatoes for this. it’s the only thing i use paste for, but i think it’s worth it, so i’ll sometimes buy the miniature cans of paste at trader joes, and freeze whatever i don’t use until i next make this recipe. if i don’t have paste, i usually cook down some chopped tomatoes in a separate skillet to make them into a sauce.

i’m wondering whether it would be better to add the spices before the tomato paste, so that the spices permeate the oil. the spice/oil interaction is probably one reason why paste works better than chopped.

i usually make a quadruple or quintuple batch of this, to feed my hippie commune. when you do that, reduce the amount of water some. also, to save time, my order of operations on a quintuple batch is:

1. put water on to boil
2. start chopping onions
3. dissolve boulion, if using it, in the water (add boullion as soon as you’re done chopping onions, even though water not boiling)
4. add lentils to water (again, do this now even though water not boiling)
5. brown onions, then do everything else with that skillet. (if water isn’t boiling now, you must not have done enough onions, otherwise you wouldn’t have finished fast enough)
6. add ginger and garlic and cook for 1 minute
7. add tomato paste and berbere spice mix and cook for several minutes
8. add onion/tomato mix into the lentils and cook until lentils are done (about 20 minutes total).
9. combine everything in with the lentils.

this works OK. Last time I tried doing it, I put on water and lentils, then started making the berbere (the mix), and then onions, and it took me too long: the lentils were definitely done by the time i was ready to add the onions, and things didn’t cook in well enough.

-N

I make this a little differently every time. Here’s a recipe that will work if you don’t want to think about things, then I’ll list a few optional ingredients.

• 1/8 t allspice
• 1/2 t cardamom
• 1/8 t cinnamon
• 1/8 t cloves
• 1/2 t coriander
• 1 t ground (dried) ginger
• 1 t fenugreek (i’m experimenting with using even more fenugreek, and think it would be good)
• 4 T paprika
• 6 T ethiopian red chili — the Brundo market in Oakland just labels this stuff berbere chili. If you’re using this recipe, you want chili, not a spice mix. Other kinds of chili work well enough.

can also add:

• 1/4 t nutmeg
• 1/2 t black pepper
• 1/4 t turmeric
• salt (i add this when i’m cooking–is there a reason to add it to the mix?)

Grind everything. Dry roast it in a skillet for a few minutes, stirring (almost) constantly. Do not inhale powdered chili. Cool, keep in bone-dry container. Yields about a 3/4 cup (whatever–do the math yourself). I usually make enough to fill a pint jar + whatever I plan on using that night.

-N

• 3 T. oil
• 1 c. onions, minced
• 3 medium potatoes, cubed
• 3 carrots, peeled and cut in chunks
• ½ head of cabbage, chopped
• 1 Anaheim chili, sliced in half – optional
• 1 T. garlic, minced
• ¼ tsp. ginger, minced
• salt to taste
• 1/2 tsp. black pepper
• 1/2 tsp. cumin
• 1/2 tsp. turmeric
• 1/4 tsp. fenugreek
• 1 c. water
• 1/2 tsp Better than boullion – optional
• ¼  tsp. cardamom – optional
• ½ c. white wine – optional

Cook onions, garlic and ginger in oil till tender.  Add carrots and potatoes to onions and cook for a few minutes.  Add cabbage, water, wine, and spices.  Boil till sauce reduces.  Add the green peppers the last five minutes.  Serve with injera or rice. ***Consider adding cabbage approx. 10 minutes after potatoes.

– L

• 2 bunches of collard greens or kale (or 10 oz pre cleaned trader joe’s bag seems a little under what I want but fine. If doing a double get 3 bags.)
• 1 large onion chopped
• 3 to 4 cloves garlic
• 1/2 inch ginger (about as much ginger as garlic, maybe a little more.)
• 2 Jalapeños
• Oil

Run the Garlic, Ginger and Jalapeños through the food processor. Cook the onions in oil, then add the garlic, ginger and jalapeños in the normal way, and good till tasty. Add greens (I often move everything to a big pot at this point) and cook until tasty. You might need to add more oil at this point because the dish wants more oil then you need to cook the onions, ~1/4th cup total.

• 2 Onions (chopped finely / pasted in a food processer)
• 1-3 tbsp Berbere (depending on how spicy you want it, or if you made it wrong…)
• 1/4 cup Canola oil
• 1 to 2 tbsp tomato paste, or a pureed tomato.
• 1/2 cup Chicopee four (de-lumped with a you know de-lumper)
• 1.5 – 2 cups water

Cook the onions on there own for a while until most of the water is gone and they start to brown. Add Oil and Berbere and cook for a couple of minutes and till the spices have been activated and smell amazing (2-3 minutes). Add tomato paste and stir in well.

Get the water ready. Start adding chicopee flour and stirring until it becomes too thing to stir, then add a little bit of water, then a bit more flour until all the flour is in. Keep stirring well until you’ve added enough water to get the the constancy you want. Simmer for a few more minutes (3-5) adding more water if needed as the flour finishes soaking it up.