Platter of Yum: with homemade 100% teff injera, spicy red lentil wot, mild yellow split peas in a creamy sauce, Ethiopian inspired Mac and Cheesie, Tangy lentil Salad and a tasty green salad with Italian Salad dressing.

Luckily for me, I’ve been stalking Kittee Berns of Cake Maker to the Stars for quite some time now. The infatuation/hero worship began when I first ran across her crazy awesome blog, and then found out she’s been vegan for 23+ years. Kittee is incredibly talented inside and outside the kitchen! She’s forever cooking/crafting/knitting/sewing all of the most fantastic things! A dear friendship has developed out of that stalkerhood and sometime in the last year I became an unofficial recipe tester for Kittee’s debut cookbook, Teff Love. During that time period, I’ve developed a serious hunk of burning love for all foods Ethiopian and sprinkled with berbere.

Ethiopian spiced hummus with toasted sunflower seed butter base, quick teff crepes and a bit of greens with Italian dressing on the side.

As you know, I LOVE food. So it’s no surprise that I adore pretty much every ethnic food I’ve ever tasted, and it turns out that despite never visiting an Ethiopian restaurant (0r Ethiopia, obviously), Ethiopian food is my new favorite cuisine. The recipes in Teff Love are straightforward, well explained and mouth-wateringly delicious. Most of the ingredients required to make these recipes are simple whole foods you can purchase at any grocery store and the book is almost entirely gluten-free. However, like any different genre of food, there are a few specialty ingredients/spices that you need in order to make the recipes in the book, these ingredients can be purchased at an Ethiopian Market/Grocer or easily online. Buyer beware: make sure to purchase imported berbere for these recipes! It packs some heat, but it’s a very delicious and complex spice mix, while berbere that’s produced stateside is mostly cayenne pepper and is EXTREMELY spicy.

Ethiopian spiced chickpea pancake.

Shehan Ful, these are some of the best beans I’ve ever eaten, and guess what?!? You eat them for breakfast! Though I’ve made them for lunch and dinner plenty of times too!

If you’re like me and just wading into Ethiopian food bliss for the first time, Kittee has plenty of fusion recipes for you to dabble with that are all ready familiar and comforting to your palate like: brownies, crispy potato wedges, tofu scramble, vegan mac and cheese, pancakes and more.

Outrageous Fudgy Mocha Teff Brownies! Look at the amazing crinkle top!

Crispy Garlicky JoJo Potatoes Deliciousness

Blueberry Sourdough Pancakes, plus some banana ones for good measure

Ethiopian spiced Mac and Cheesie and an Insanely good Tempeh Salad loaded with Apples.

Tofu Scramble tastiness

When you’re ready to take it to the next level and start making real Ethiopian food, Kittee holds your hand throughout the book and teaches you everything you need to know. The book includes menu plans, instructions for how to make your own 100% teff injera and even advice for putting together your own Ethiopian food shindig.

My favorite thing in the universe right now is Kittee’s injera. The injera is a fermented sourdough type crepe and serves as a base for all of the delicious recipes that top its surface. Its texture is slightly spongy and stretchy and it absorbs the flavors from the foods that sit on top of it and makes for a gorgeous flavor explosion. I cooked my injera on a well seasoned cast iron skillet and it turned out perfectly. You can watch a short video of Kittee making injera and get more injera skills info here.

I found out Kittee was going to be in my neck of the woods and I invited her over for lunch. I made her and her bubs (Dazee and Vee) an Ethiopian feast with some of the recipes in the book. I love that although this was the first time we’d “actually met” it just felt like old friends getting together. Our two hours weren’t nearly long enough!

SO MUCH GOOD FOOD!

We gobbled up our feast and I still had plenty of yummy leftovers to serve my family for dinner that night. I’ve all ready got another batch of injera fermenting!

Visit Kittee Berns at her blog: Cake Maker to the Stars.

Read more about Kittee’s love affair with Ethiopian food here.

Purchase your own copy of Teff Love: Adventures in Vegan Ethiopian Cooking !

Or, for a chance to win a copy of Teff Love, simply leave a comment on this post below. The winner will be chosen at random on March 11th! U.S. Residents only please! Good luck! ❤