Ethiopian Feast

Robert was in town, so I used his arrival as a perfect excuse to try my hand at Ethiopian food, which we both love, especially Doro Wat.

Having never attempted a single Ethiopian dish before, I was a little nervous. I looked at more than one hundred recipes, and here is what I came up with:


For those of you unfamiliar with Ethiopian food (shame on you) the brown tortilla sort of bread is called injera. It is a spongy, slightly sour, bread made mostly of Teff flour. There are lots of places to pick this up in Minneapolis including African grocery stores, the Seward Co-op, and Everret's Foods on 38th and Cedar. It is tasty, even with good old American food.

The bright pink food is a beet and potato salad with a lemon dressing.

To the right, the yellow mush are lentils called Misr Allecha. These were amazing.

To the left of the picture is Chickpea Wat.

All three of these recipes I followed pretty much exactly. They were all good, but the lentils were particularly good.

On the bottom of the picture is Doro Wat. This is my favorite Ethiopian dish and this was my attempt to recreate it, though Robert did a lot of the work. We combined a few recipes to get to what we thought was a good recipe. It ended up being VERY spicy, almost too much. But it was VERY GOOD.

This dinner was great. I will definitely be making more Ethiopian food in the future. It was pretty easy, it just takes some time.

Meatless Monday

(Spicy Indian Chickpeas with Basmati Rice)

My New Year's Resolution is to eat less meat. Specifically, I want to stick to a vegetarian diet once a week. Therefore, in comes Meatless Monday.
Meatless Monday is a "nation health campaign to help Americans prevent heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and cancer..." According to wikipedia, it dates back to a government movement during WWI for families to eat less meat to save money for war bonds.

If you know me, you know that this is not why I'm doing it. I'm doing it because Americans eat too much meat. Meat, produced under most circumstances (including organic), is much worse for the environment than how most veggies (especially organic) are produced. Also, meat takes a lot more inputs of energy and water than veggies. And we all know that our next war will be over water, we are already fighting over energy.
Plus, veggies, grains, and beans are tasty. It helps expand my collection of recipes. And, it is good for our health.

So, today was my first Meatless Monday of the year. Or, should I say, our first Meatless Monday.

These chickpeas were great. Spicy, a little tart, and a bit tangy, they really hit the spot on a cold Minnesota evening. They were also super low fat and have lots of fiber. Served on rice, they make a complete protein. Even CJ liked them.

Kale and Chickpeas

Here you go Dean, a completely vegan (and virtually fat free) dinner.
Saute 3 cloves of garlic and a small onion in a teeny bit of olive oil (I used the spray kind) until tender. Add in juice of a lemon, a chopped large tomato, and a can of chickpeas. Cook until the tomatoes breakdown a bit and give you a sauce, 3-5 minutes. Throw a whole lot of Kale on top (maybe 4-5 cups, chopped) and let wilt. Season with salt and pepper.

Serve with two tiny, juicy, succulent lamb chops and a piece of rye bread.