Eating Vegan or Vegetarian Food outside India - Ethiopian Food

Enjoying Vegan Food of Ethiopia

It was a real pleasure to yesterday to eat lunch at Merkamo in Liverpool Street at Central London . This is a Ethiopian food place and is 100% vegan. It gave me an insight that t Vegetarian or Vegan food is not a sole copy right of Indians many other countries have such choices and  Ethiopians are  good at it.
In fact majority of Ethiopia is Orthodox Christian and the orthodox Ethiopians don’t eat meat on Wednesdays and Fridays so they have plenty of dishes for eating pleasure of Vegans as well as vegetarians. They also do not eat meat during lent period. So today, I will give you little insight into the Vegan options available in Ethiopian food platter.

Ethiopia is one of the top livestock producing nations in the world. People LOVE to eat meat!
But the good news is, if you’re vegetarian, or if you just want to eat healthy, Ethiopia also has some of the best vegetarian options one can have anywhere.

Injera
First things first: Injera. It’s the staple starch and filler of Ethiopia, a food that just about all Ethiopians, no matter what class or status, eat one, two, or even three times daily.

Injera is made from teff,  an ancient grain that’s native to Ethiopia, and really only eaten by Ethiopians and Eritreans.

Teff flour is mixed with water until it becomes a batter than left to ferment, giving it a signature sour flavor, and then fried like a pancake in large circles like North Indian Cheela or South Indian Dosa .

Injera is used as the base of any Ethiopian meal, spread flat out over a communal pan and topped with Ethiopian saucy dishes.

Restaurants also normally have extra rolls of injera you can use to scoop up the dishes on your plate, but often there’s enough excess injera from the base that you don’t really need any extra.

The spongy pancake staple is something you’ll be eating every single day in Ethiopia, no matter if you’re a strict vegetarian or a hardcore carnivore.

Everyone eats injera, and it’s served complimentary with any Ethiopian dish you choose.

Yetsom Beyaynetu – The Platter

Let’s start with a complete Ethiopian vegetarian food meal known as yetsom beyaynetu.

It’s essentially a mixed combination platter of injera topped with a variety of strictly vegan curries and vegetables available that day.

Just about every Ethiopian restaurant offers a yetsom beyaynetu on Wednesdays and Fridays, and some offer it everyday of the week.

The mixed Ethiopian vegetarian plate offers a little bit of everything so that you get some real variety in your meal. The flavors and ingredients are so delicious together. 

Shiro Wat – A Staple

One of the Ethiopian food staples is shiro wat. It’s a curry or stew made from ground chickpeas flour – so basically it’s what I would call a bean paste – and it’s so flavorful.

Vegan shiro wat is cooked with a little oil, a blend of spices, onions, garlic, and ginger. It’s creamy like a hummus, beautifully flavorful, and very healthy.

Misir Wat – Lentils

Another omnipresent Ethiopian dish that’s almost certainly available at any restaurant serving vegan food is misir wat, or red lentils curry.

The lentils are simmered along with the mixture of spices called berbere in Ethiopian region, onions and garlic, and olive oil. Again, it’s a winning Ethiopian vegetarian food that’s not only healthy and protein rich, but it’s really tasty.

There are plenty of other wats (curries or stews) that utilize yellow peas, all sorts of different legumes, mung beans, and the full spectrum of legumes.

Other Vegetables

Gomen is collard greens, a vitamin packed healthy green leafy vegetable. It’s extremely common in Ethiopia and nearly always makes part of a mixed platter. The vegetable is normally cooked quite plain, sauteed in a little oil with some garlic.

Other vegetables that are frequently consumed in Ethiopian vegetarian food include cabbage, beats, potatoes, carrots, string beans, tomatoes, and jalapenos.

Ethiopian Salad - Salata

Another thing you’re absolutely going to love in Ethiopia is their salad.

The mixed Ethiopian vegan food platter, yetsom beyaynetu,  includes a portion of tomato salad (timatim salata) as one of the dishes, but if not, you can ask for it (they don’t always have it, but it’s worth a shot). .

Diced tomatoes, red onions, and slices of jalapeno, dressed in nothing more than salt, lemon / lime juice, and a drizzle of olive oil, then scooped up with pieces of injera is an amazing flavor.
This  mixed salad is served in a huge clay pot loaded with ripped pieces of napa cabbage, tomatoes, onions, jalapenos, and dressed in the same simple and marvelous dressing.

Fasting Fitfit -Firfir
Fitfit is a popular Ethiopian food that includes pieces of injera that are soaked in lemon juice and olive oil, mixed with some berbere seasoning, and eaten as a full meal, or on top of a combination platter of injera. Many people  call it marinated injera. It’s easy to eat and makes good use of day old injera.

There are often a number of fasting versions of fitfit, such as shiro fitfit  or timatim fit fit  both are vegie delight.