Ethiopian. YUM.

Jess and I often say (and it's true!) that D.C. is the American capital of Ethiopian food. We feel so fortunate to live in the city that offers such a variety of wonderful cultures from all over the world- and we often take advantage of that most- in food!
We have frequented many of the Ethiopian restaurants around the city from the well known Meskrem to the lesser known but our favorite Queen of Sheba. In each of these we are always ecstatic to get the "Vegetarian platter," which is a very generous helping of foods not often found in typical dining in America, but incredibly delicious and flavorful.

For those of you who have never tried Ethiopian food, you are in good company- it was not until I was in college that I went to Addis Red Sea in Boston, but it quickly won me over.
When you eat Ethiopian food the consistency of most dishes is similar to that of an Indian curry. However, instead of a plate, all food is served communally on top of Injera- a unique and delicious bread. The closest that I ever came to describing this delicious bread was a friend who said it tasted a felt like a giant (really really big) sourdough pancake cut in half length wise and rolled out under your food. YUM.

Now, Jess and I enjoy cooking and have challenged ourselves with many different dishes over the years we have been cooking together, but we had never even fathomed trying Ethiopian- it just had too many different spices and seemed so complex (!).
Imagine then, my curiosity when I went over to a friends house just after he had moved to a new part of the city and saw him cooking Misir Wot in his own kitchen. AMAZING!
Misir Wot is a dish that I often say is my favorite Ethiopian dish due in large part to how spicy it is, and also the complexity of the flavors.
My friend Tim though, who recently moved into an area of town booming with Ethiopian restaurants just walked in and asked which spices they sold so that he could try and make the dishes himself.
Following Tim's lead (quite literally as I biked behind him to buy spices and Injera) I tried on my own to make Misir Wot (Yup!). I was initially shocked when I saw the simplicity of the recipe- it certainly is one of the easier dishes we have made and highlighted on this blog- there is only one ingredient that you will not find in your local grocery store- berbere spice.
BUT, after you have that one spice- or make it from scratch, you are good to go!

I was so eager to make this dish once I got the berbere spice I started making it without having enough lentils so I added split peas in place of half the lentils and it still tasted delicious!

Misir Wot:

1 onion

2 tbs olive oil

6 cloves of garlic

2 cups of lentils (or split peas)

2 tbs of berbere spice

Soak lentils over night in water one inch above the level of your lentils

Cook lentils for (at least) 5 hours at warm in a slow cooker.

Dice onion and cook with oil till translucent- then add diced garlic.

Add berbere spice and lentils and stir till all lentils are covered- feel free to add up to a half cup of water to ensure spices cover lentils.

Cook lentils over medium low heat until they are soft and serve on Ingera.