Eritrean Lentil Stew | Wat

Let's thank Eritrea for this giant, vegan bowl of deliciousness - a happy mixture of spicy lentils, offset by sweet carrots and tomatoes. The heat comes from berberé, the regional spice blend that should be added with a heavy hand. Edited to add: One of our readers posted a great tip in the comments section of our Ethiopian menu which also applies to Eritrean cooking: "When I watch Ethiopian cooks in Ethiopia they chop up red onion very tiny (I use a food processor and stop short of pulverizing as it helps it cook down faster) and then dry cook it in the pan — no oil. They dry cook it stirring constantly until it turns almost into a paste — imagine the consistency of a good roux. It takes a lot of onion to get the right amount of this paste. Then add the oil/lentils, sauce stuff, etc. The onion paste is actually the thickener for the wat — if you don’t do this step properly then the wat ends up too soupy/watery or you end up having to put in too much other thickeners." -Sandra While our version is nice and dry (and tastes lovely as is), you might be interested in playing with this technique sometime.

Great

% Daily Values based on a 2,000 calorie diet