National Dishes of the World

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Injera
Photo: Artem.G, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

bread vegan

Injera

እንጀራ (injera)

A sour, spongy flatbread of fermented teff flour that serves as both plate and cutlery.

Eaten in: Eritrea, Ethiopia

Prep
15 min
Cooking
40 min
Resting
48 h
Total
48 h 55 min
Servings
6

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About the dish

Injera is a large, thin flatbread made from teff, a tiny grain grown in the Horn of Africa. The batter ferments for several days, giving the bread a gentle sourness, and as it bakes on a wide clay griddle called a mitad its top becomes covered in a dense network of holes. Injera lines a shared tray onto which stews and vegetables are spooned, and diners tear off pieces to scoop up the food. It appears at almost every meal, even at breakfast as firfir, torn injera tossed in sauce.

Main ingredients

  • teff flour
  • water
  • salt

Eritrea: Called taita (ጣይታ) in Tigrinya.

More: Wikipedia (en)

Recipe

Injera

https://foodmap.ominuvo.com/dish/injera

Ingredients

6 servings

6 servings

Method

  1. Mix the teff flour with the lukewarm water into a smooth, runny batter, cover with a cloth and leave in a warm place for 2–3 days.

  2. When a dark liquid has collected on top and the batter bubbles and smells sour, pour off the liquid and stir the batter.

  3. Take about 100 ml of the batter, cook it with an equal amount of water, stirring until it thickens like custard, then cool it and stir it back into the rest.

  4. Add the salt and thin the batter with water to the consistency of single cream, then leave it for 30–60 minutes until bubbles appear again.

  5. Heat a large non-stick frying pan over medium heat and wipe it with a little oil.

  6. Pour in the batter in a spiral from the edge to the centre so it thinly coats the base, and when holes appear, cover the pan with a lid.

  7. Cook without flipping for 2–3 minutes until the top is dry and the edges lift, then slide the injera onto a cloth and let it cool before stacking.

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