Cooking With Kids Takes Us to Ethiopia For Lentils with Injera and Cucumber Salad

KASA - Serves 4 to 6

Ethiopia is a country in East Africa. Traditional Ethiopian cuisine reflects the influence of

trade over thousands of years, which brought ginger from the Orient, hot chile peppers

and many exotic spices from India. Berbere spice mix is made from a long list of spices

and is a key ingredient in Ethiopian cooking. If you don’t happen to have these spices in

your cupboard, you can make this delicious lentil dish without the Berbere spice mix.

Injera is traditional Ethiopian pancake-like bread. In Africa, injera is made from teff, a

highly nutritious grain. You can substitute white flour or cornmeal for the teff or millet

flour with good results.

Berbere spice mix

1 whole clove

1 cardamom pod

3 black peppercorns

2 whole allspice

1 ⁄ 8 teaspoon whole fenugreek seeds

1 ⁄ 8 teaspoon ground ginger

1 ⁄ 8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 ⁄ 8 teaspoon ground turmeric

1 ⁄ 4 teaspoon salt

Make the berbere spice mix:

 

Remove the seeds from the

cardamom pod. Combine the whole clove, cardamom,

peppercorns, allspice, and fenugreek seeds in a small skillet

and toast over medium-high heat, stirring constantly until

the spices become fragrant. Remove from the heat and let

the spices cool. Grind the spices in a mortar and pestle until

finely ground. Transfer the spices into a small bowl and stir

in the ground ginger, nutmeg, turmeric, and salt.

Make the lentils:

 

In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium-high heat. Add the onions

and garlic and cook for about 2 minutes, until the onions have softened. Stir in the red

chile and cumin and cook, stirring constantly for about 30 seconds more. Add the lentils

along with the juice. When the lentils begin to boil, stir in the berbere spice mix, reduce

the heat to medium, and simmer for 5 minutes, uncovered. Chop the collards into 1-inch

pieces. Stir the collards intoStir the collards into the lentils and cook, covered, for about 10 minutes more, until

the collards are tender.