Easy recipe: Ethiopian Injera

Ethiopian Injera (Photo: iStock)

Injera is a popular indigenous Ethiopian dish, prepared from teff, a small round grain that thrives mainly in the higher lands of Ethiopia. It is flatbread with spongy like texture. Injera is a key component to the dining process in the Ethiopian culture as bread is their most fundamental component.

Injera is mainly served on a wide plate with various Ethiopian savoury dishes served on top of it. As the 'feast' progresses, it soaks the juices from the dishes. The crowning moment when eating Injera is when all the stew is over and the flatbread is eaten to show completion of the meal.

Injera is very nutritious as the grain teff contains no gluten hence it's growing popularity around Africa and the world as a whole.

Although the recipe might change from place to place, here are the common ingredients to use when preparing Injera:

Two small cups of teff flour.

One cup of wheat flour.

Two cups of water.

A quarter teaspoon of active dry yeast.

One teaspoon of salt.

A half teaspoon of baking powder.

Method:

In a bowl add the teaspoon of active dry yeast, then add the teaspoon of salt together one cup of water then stir. Ensure the water you use is warm.

Next, add two cups of teff flour to the mixture and continue stirring until it is as thick as clay. Cover the mixture with a lead and let it sit for three days at room temperature.

After three days uncover it and inspect the mixture. Water formation should be a good sign of fermentation.

Now to the mixture, add one cup of sieved wheat flour. Then mix together to blend it in with the teff flour that had been fermented.

Slowly add a cup of water to the mixture, while you continue stirring. Then add teaspoon of baking powder and teaspoon of salt to the mixture and continue stirring.

Finally, add the rest of your water to the mixture and stir slowly, in total you should use two cups of water. The consistency should be thicker than a crepe but thinner than a pancake. Cover it and let it sit for another two days.

In a non-stick pan, add a serving spoon full of the mixture and spread it out to the whole pan evenly. The process is similar to cooking pancakes from here on. Once the perforations start to form cover it with a lid to allow it to simmer. Repeat the procedure for each.

Serve with beef stew or any other delicacy on the top and enjoy.