

Seattle has an abundance of Ethiopian food. After Indian, Ethiopian is always the next choice when we want some spice and deep flavors in the meal. The veggie platter filled with 2 to 4 different simmered lentil dishes, greens, simmered okra, cabbage pcarrot wat, all served up over the huge Injera. There are several Ethiopian restaurants in Seattle. A lot of them however are usually a miss when it comes to maintaining the taste and quality of the food. Or maybe I am picky 🙂 Seattle-lites, what is your favorite Ethiopian restaurant?

Atakilt Wat/ Atkilt wot is a cabbage side that is so close to the Indian cabbage dishes and yet has its own flavor profile. The traditional recipe may or may note use uses niter kibeh which is butter/ghee slow-infused with whole spices like cardamom, cinnamon, fenugreek, cloves, ginger, garlic etc. by cooking everything on low heat for hours. You can make niter qibe/ kibeh with coconut or olive oil(see my second book for a recipe) and use about a Tbsp in this recipe instead of all the spices and oil. Since I don’t usually have the infused oil ready, I add the spices to oil in the second step to infuse the oil while cooking (indian food style) for my interpretation of atakilt wat. You can omit the spices. Cook the dish at lower heat for best results. Serve with Ethiopian flat breads or other flat breads and lentil stews.





More Ethiopian from the blog.

This is a simplified version of the traditional wat.



Steps:

cook the onion, garlic, ginger for 5 minutes.

Add all the spices and cook to infuse the oil to make a quick niter kibeh.







Add the veggies, cover and cook until tender.







Serve hot.



lentil wat, ethiopian greens(gomen wat). Serve hot with Ethiopian flat bread Injera and, ethiopian greens(gomen wat).

*The veggies get cooked in their own moisture. If they start to stick (depends on your lid, type of pan, moisture in the veggies), add splashes of water or broth and mix in and continue to cook.

Video: