Eat Sustainable, Eat Ethiopian

It never occurred to me that vegetables made up the majority of my diet until middle school when I started eating school lunch. 

For me, a home-cooked meal would only include meat a few times a week. What I really looked forward to was a plate full of a variety of vegetables, one where I savored the aroma and rich taste. 

Vegetables in my household were treated with great appreciation as opposed to being the unwanted requirement for your daily nutrient intake. 

It was when I would eat school-provided lunches that I dreaded a meal that didn’t include meat. I was always left feeling unsatisfied and still hungry if my meal only consisted of vegetables. 

This was because vegetables never seemed appealing either, always served steamed or in a salad, never exploring different flavor avenues. 

My upbringing had spoiled me, and Western cooking often left me feeling frustrated when they were wasting the potential of these amazing ingredients. 

This is an example of a typical platter you can order at an Ethiopian restaurant. Only two of the wet on the platter include meat while the rest are vegan or vegetarian. Another common dish you can find at Ethiopian restaurants is sambusa which are triangle-shaped pastry shells filled with seasoned lentils and peppers. Photo by Acsah Lemma.

I come from an Ethiopian family, and a large part of our cuisine is vegetarian and vegan. However, those words are foreign to us. Instead, we use the word tsom. 

Tsom refers to many things in Ethiopia, but its main definition is the fasting season before Easter for Ethiopian Orthodox Christians. 

During Tsom, Ethiopian Orthodox Christians fast for 55 days in preparation for the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Followers will abstain from any animal products including meat, dairy and so on and adhere to a vegan lifestyle. 

While I and my family are not Ethiopian Orthodox Christian, the vast majority of Ethiopia is, and has been for millennia, and as such, Ethiopian Orthodox culture is synonymous with Ethiopian culture. 

But in order to really understand what I’m saying you have to understand what Ethiopian food is. While we have many facets of our cuisine, especially when you delve deeper into the different tribal cultures, our main unifier is injera.

Injera refers to the spongy, thin, flatbread that we use essentially as a utensil to carry wet, which is the broad name for the various different kinds of stew you eat with injera into your mouth. The main ingredient of injera is teff, which is a versatile gluten-free grain grown in the Horn of Africa where Ethiopia is located. 

Injera is served on a plate with a variety of different wets. Additional injera rolls are served on another plate or on the side of the wet. Ethiopian food is characterized by rich, vibrant tastes, aromas and colors. Photo by Acsah Lemma.

Now when eating injera, there are a multitude of different kinds of wet you can eat with it. The national dish of Ethiopia is doro wet (English translation: chicken stew), a spicy, flavorful chicken stew made with berbere which is a blend of different Ethiopian spices and peppers. 

While I personally love doro wet, it’s incredibly time-consuming and usually reserved for special occasions and celebrations. In everyday meals, however, the wet is made without animal products. 

My favorite is a wet called tikil gomen. Tikil gomen consists of green cabbage, carrots, onions and potatoes sauteed in oil, turmeric, salt and garlic. The turmeric gives it a rich, yellow color and a pleasant taste. 

Tikil gomen is a fairly easy vegan Ethiopian dish to make. A sauce consisting of sauteed onions, carrots, potatoes and turmeric is made. Roughly chopped cabbage is then added and the dish is left to simmer until the cabbage is soft and fully seasoned in the sauce. Photo by Acsah Lemma.

Another fan-favorite is miser wet. Miser in Amharic, the official language of Ethiopia, means lentils. But lentils are such a versatile ingredient, and as a result, there are many different kinds of miser wet. One that I like to make at home is key miser (English translation: red lentils), which utilizes berbere, tomato paste, onions, oil and more. 

While the vibrant red color and taste give off the illusion that it includes meat or any animal product, all miser wet regardless of color, traditionally do not include animal products. 

Key miser is another simple dish that most Ethiopians can whip up in less than an hour. Key miser is made by creating a base of diced onions sauteed in oil, garlic tomato paste, and most importantly, berbere. Water is then added in addition to cooked lentils. The stew is left to simmer for around half an hour and served hot. Photo by Acsah Lemma.

Another wet, which is often referred to as the “struggle meal” in Ethiopian cuisine is shiro wet. Shiro wet is made from shiro powder: ground chickpeas. Similar to miser, there is more than one way to make shiro. The most popular method is to use berbere which creates key shiro (English translation: red), or to use turmeric which creates bicha shiro (English translation: yellow). 

Shiro doesn’t require anything more than shiro powder, onions and water. Depending on the type of shiro you are making, turmeric or berbere might be added as well. Given the bare ingredients needed, it’s an easy and affordable dish for most Ethiopians to make. 

Every wet with a black star on it is vegan. Meat dishes only make up a tiny amount of traditional Ethiopian food. Photo by Acsah Lemma.

While the Western world embraces an individualistic approach to eating, the opposite can be said for Ethiopians. Traditionally, Ethiopian food is eaten in a communal style. A big platter with various wets and plenty rolls of injera is shared between a group of people. 

Food waste is kept at a minimum because what you might not be able to finish, someone else eating with you can. You’ll leave the meal with a full stomach, satisfied from vegetables alone. 

To Ethiopians, food sustainability isn’t a foreign concept because utilizing every ingredient grown in our country is ingrained in our culture and how we show our pride.

I assure you, you won’t miss meat when eating Ethiopian food. Don’t dread eating vegetables because they are worth so much more than you think. 

And in true Ethiopian fashion, drink a carbonated beverage after your meal and burp your bloatedness away.