Miser Wat – Ethiopian Red Lentils

I love Ethiopian food, but I’d never tried to make it before. This attempt at Miser Wat was a definite success, so be prepared for more Ethiopian dishes to come!

This recipe from Herbivoracious was the simplest one I found. Basically here’s what it entails:

1) Start cooking some red lentils. They say 2 cups will be good for 4 people as part of a meal. I think it makes an insane amount… But it is good enough that maybe 4 people would eat it all in one sitting?

2) Purée together an onion, a few cloves of garlic, and some ginger

3) Heat some oil (or you could use butter) in a pan. Add 2Tbsp paprika (my favorite!) 1Tbsp turmeric (my dad’s favorite!) cayenne to taste – I added ~1/2tsp. Don’t let any of this burn! I only say that because I may have. It turned out ok, but not recommended.

4) Add the onion mixture to the spices, cook for 10 minutes, and then add that all to the lentils. Add salt – they say 1/2tsp, but that was way too little according to my taste, and I’m a chronic under-salter.

5) Keep cooking the lentils until they disintegrate. Add more water if you need – it should be like a thick tomato sauce.

When it was all done, I realized I should probably have made Injera – the Ethiopian bread – to go with it. Is that difficult? I don’t even know. In lieu of that, I served it with pan-warmed corn tortillas. Sacrilegious? Potentially, but totally worked!