In all of this settling into a new house, a new job, and a new routine of home schooling, we’ve been eating out a lot. It’s actually been more than I’d like, but a mama has to take care of her sanity.
I often assume that when people think of what vegetarians eat in restaurants it’s along the lines of grilled cheese, veggie burgers, fettucine alfredo, and if we’re lucky, veggie lasagne. Well, yes, those are the choices I’m frequently faced with at regular family-oriented restaurants, but we don’t often eat at those places. Thankfully, my husband enjoys ethnic foods as much as I do, and my daughter’s favorite kinds of dishes are Mexican and Indian. Three cheers for introducing them to the wonderful world of spices when they were one!
Not only do ethnic restaurants usually offer vegetarian sections in their menus at least 10 dishes long, but the food is usually much healthier. For instance, last week we ate Thai and had steamed rice and red and green mild vegetable coconut milk curries. To die for! The week before we ate Japanese. I can’t believe that once upon a time I used to hate tempura vegetables! Brown rice veggie sushi, miso soup (I took out the tofu) and seaweed salad. Yum! The only thing I’m not crazy about is that many ethnic dishes include copious amount of tofu. I used to be okay with it, but since I’ve given up soy (for the most part) I can’t stand how much tofu floats around in Chinese, Japanese, and Thai foods.
But last night we went to an East African Restaurant. They had a beautiful buffet including four types of dahl (stewed lentil dishes), no tofu!, two veggie dishes, steamed rice and injera, which is a kind of flat bread, more like a spongy, slightly sour-tasting pancake, made from fermented sourdough batter. Not only is it a food, it is also an eating utensil! Ethiopians use it as a plate, which soaks up the stews sitting atop it and as a spoon. In the restaurant, regular flatware was optional.
If you have never tried East African food (from Ethiopia or Eritrea), I suggest you give it a try. They had a number of different meat dishes that my husband also fully enjoyed.
While I have never made this myself (yet!) I wanted to share a recipe for injera that I found here. Oh yes, it is also practically gluten-free as the teff grain contains practically no gluten!
Injera
1/4 cup teff flour
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup water
a pinch of salt
sunflower oil
Directions
- Put the teff flour in the bottom of a mixing bowl, and sift in the all-purpose flour.
- Slowly add the water, stirring to avoid lumps.
- Stir in the salt.
- Heat a nonstick pan or lightly oiled cast-iron skillet until a water
- drop dances on the surface. Make sure the surface of the pan is smooth: Otherwise, your injera might fall apart when you try to remove it.
- Coat the pan with a thin layer of batter. Injera should be thicker than a crêpe, but not as thick as a traditional pancake. It will rise slightly when it heats.
- Cook until holes appear on the surface of the bread. Once the surface is dry, remove the bread from the pan and let it cool.
For more tips and tricks on making injera go here.
Enjoy!
Linked up at Vegetarian Foodie Fridays at Breastfeeding Moms Unite!, Foodie Friday at Designs by Gollum, Fight Back Friday at Food Renegade, Friday Food at Momtrends, Food on Friday at Ann Kroeker, Wholesome Whole Foods at Health Food Lover, Just Another Meatless Monday at Hey, What’s For Dinner Mom? My Meatless Mondays at My Sweet and Savory, Hearth and Soul Blog Hop at Frugality and Crunchiness With Christy, Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays at Simply Sugar and Gluten Free.
Tags: gluten-free
You are the third person who has recently recommended Ethiopian food to me – so I think I’d better try some! It sounds like such an interesting cuisine. Thanks for sharing the injera recipe too!
This won’t be fermented if you cook it right away, but leaving it out for at least 24 hours, especially if you add a starter or a tablespoon of whey, will give it that delicious sour flavor of real injera. I love Ethiopian food!
Chandelle´s last [type] ..un-discipline
Oh boy does this look good! What time is dinner?
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[...] recipe this week is Ethiopian Injera, a fermented sourdough flatbread used to soak up stews. In the post I also discuss vegetarian [...]
It is exciting to try new foods from different regions of the world. I have been cooking with two groups who are traveling through the world and even though, I doubt my recipes are authentic, they do give a taste of what it is like.
This is brand new to me and after I get through Japan and Morroco, I will try to look into this.
By then, you should be an expert and you can teach me.
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I had injera at an Ethiopian restaurant in Toronto and it’s great. The only restaurant I’ve been to where there wasn’t any cutlery. Just the injera.
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I had injera at an Ethiopian restaurant and loved it! Unfortunately the restaurant closed
( I would love to try and make this! Thanks for sharing this with the hearth’nsoul blog hop!
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Hey Mel, gosh, I had no clue you homeschooled AND had a job! YOU go girl! I adore ethnic cuisine and truth be told, usually look for the vegetarian dishes at most places because they are way more complex than the ones I would make at home! Our favorites are indian and japanese. I have eaten at an African restaurant before and adored the bread as utensil! Thanks for sharing on the hearth and soul hop!
HUGS! Alex@amoderatelife
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[...] recipe this week is Ethiopian Injera, a fermented sourdough flatbread used to soak up stews. In the post I also discuss vegetarian [...]
I have always wanted to make Injera, too!! Thanks so much for the recipe and for sharing w/ hns this week
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As a celiac, I face my own set of challenges in restaurants, but like you, I’ve found that there are options out there, especially if you go outside of mainstream restos. I used to live next door to an Ethiopian woman, and her injera was to die for! Thanks for bringing back tasty memories for me by linking up with Hearth and Soul.
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[...] egg and spinach salad)36. Zoe @ Z’s Cup of Tea (Creamy Pork and Beans Tomato Stew)37. Breastfeeding Moms Unite! Ethiopian Injera Flatbread)38. Kaitlin @ Kaitlin With Honey (Homemade Granola Bars)39. Kaitlin @ Kaitlin With Honey (Homemade [...]