Shredded Beets With Thick Yogurt

All You Need

2 cups plain low-fat yogurt
400 g al alali Diced Beets drained
1 large clove garlic, crushed with a pinch of salt 
2 tbsps. fresh, strained lemon juice 
Salt to taste 
al alali Ground Black Pepper to taste 
Pinch of sugar, optional 
Sprigs of fresh mint for garnish

South African Vegetable Curry

Joan Bacharach shares this curry from the Cape Malay community in South Africa. She serves it with brown rice, shredded coconut, and chutney.

Ingredients

• 3/4 pound green beans, rinsed, ends trimmed
• 1 head cauliflower (1 1/2 lb.), rinsed
• 1 green bell pepper (6 oz.), rinsed, stemmed, and seeded
• 1/2 pound (1 1/2 cups) dried peaches
• 2 tablespoons salad oil
• 1 onion (1/2 lb.), peeled and thinly sliced $
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
• 2 cinnamon sticks (each 2 in.)
• 2 tablespoons curry powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
• 1 1/2 cups vegetable broth or fat-skimmed chicken broth
• 3 cups (1/2 lb.) coarsely shredded cabbage
• Salt
• Apricot-Lemon Chutney

Preparation

1. 1. Cut carrots into 1/2-inch-thick slices. Cut beans into 1 1/2-inch pieces. Cut the cauliflower into 1 1/2-inch florets. Cut pepper and peaches into 1-inch pieces.
2. 2. In a 5- to 6-quart pan over medium-high heat, stir oil, onion, ginger, garlic, and cinnamon sticks until onion is limp, 5 to 7 minutes. Add curry powder and turmeric; stir 30 seconds. Add broth, carrots, beans, cauliflower, bell pepper, peaches, and cabbage; bring to a boil over high heat.
3. 3. Cover and simmer over low heat, stirring occasionally, until carrots are tender when pierced, 20 to 25 minutes. Add salt to taste.

African Vegetable & Side Dish Recipes

The vegetable and side dish category contains dishes that use little or no meat, fish, or fowl, or use them more as a seasoning than as a main ingredient. These may be served as side dishes in a Western-style meal; in Africa these dishes, plus a staple or Fufu-like dish often constitute the entire meal.

Adalu
Aloco
Beans and Rice
Boiled and Mashed Vegetables
Breadfruit
Feuilles de Manioc
Fool Medames
Futari
Gari Foto
Githeri
Greens in Peanut Sauce
Greens with Green Pepper
Ifisashi
Irio
Kachumbari
Kelewele
Koko na Nyama
Kosheri
Kpwem
Maharagwe
Mbaazi wa Nazi
Mchuzi wa Biringani
Mfumbwa
Moroko
Njamma-jamma
Okra & Greens
Plantains in Coconut Milk
Plantains in Palm Oil
Red-Red
Saka-Madesu
Saka-Saka
Squash with Peanuts
Sweet Potato Greens with Fish and Shrimp
Umngqusho

Mozambique Vegetable Stew

Ingredients:

• 1 Tbsp olive oil or to taste
• 2 cloves garlic, minced OR a pinch of asefetida
• 1 Tbsp or to taste minced fresh ginger
• 1 Tbsp or to taste minced fresh jalapeno pepper
• 1/2 cup diced sweet onion
• 2 stalks celery, sliced lengthwise and chopped into bits
• 1 large sweet potato or yam, peeled and chopped into bite sized pieces, OR 3 carrots diced, OR a small butternut squash peeled and chopped
• 1 bunch kale, stemmed and chopped in small pieces (3 cups) OR 1 head broccoli, stalks peeled, chopped small
• 1 cup chopped green beans OR frozen green beans OR 1 small zucchini cubed
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1/2 cup unsalted tomato sauce
• 1/2 - 1 cup unsalted vegetable broth
• 1 cup coconut milk
• Optional: 1 cup diced seitan or cooked red chili beans or kidney beans
• Fresh ground black pepper to taste
• 1/2 tsp Salt OR 1 tsp soy sauce or Braggs liquid aminos OR to taste
• 1/2 bunch chopped cilantro OR parsley

Cooking Tips:

C. throws in whatever veggies are in the fridge.At our house, that's usually a lot. So I broke out the veg choices into groups, and went with sweet potato, kale, frozen green beans, AND zucchini, besides the obligatory onion, garlic and ginger.

I left out the jalapeno because we're not spicey food fans. I also added seitan, which made our Mozambique vegetable stew a main dish instead of a side dish.

This recipe is quick to make - the secret is to chop the veggies small. If you like your veggies uncrunchy, just cook until it seems right to you.

The resulting vegetable stew is rich, spicy, and delicious. I served it with white basmati rice (no time to cook brown rice), green salad, and crusty sourdough bread with hummus.

Directions:

1. Heat the olive oil on low in a heavy wide sauté pan while you peel and chop veggies
2. Turn up the heat a bit, sauté the celery, garlic or asefetida, onion, fresh ginger and jalapeno briefly
3. Add the yam, stir and cook 5 minutes, lower heat, cover and cook 5 minutes
4. Add the yam or carrots
5. Turn up the heat again, stir and cook 5 minutes
6. Add the FRESH greens beans or zucchini, plus the cumin and turmeric, stir and cook briefy
7. Add the tomato sauce and vegetable broth, stir and cook until hot, cover and simmer 5 minutes
8. Add the coconut milk, stir and cook two minutes, adding more broth as needed if it seems too thick
9. Add the chopped kale or broccoli, stir and cook two more minutes
10. Add FROZEN beans if you're using them, and optional seitan or beans
11. At this point, cook a few minutes extra if the veggies seem to need it
12. Add fresh ground black pepper, salt, shoyu or braggs liquid aminos to taste
13. Turn off heat and cover
14. Serve garnished with chopped cilantro OR parsley

Chakalaka (South African Vegetable Stir-Fry)

3 medium onions, diced

3 medium carrots, diced
2 medium green bell peppers, diced
3 medium tomatoes, diced
curry powder, to your taste
salt, to taste
pepper, to taste
green chili (optional)
1 vegetable bouillon cube
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 -2 tablespoon oil, for frying
1/4 cup water
Directions:

1
Fry the onion and pepper together with oil in a large skillet until the onion is clear.
2
Add the grated carrots, tomatoes, water, and all the seasonings to your liking and cook for about 15-20 minutes.

Here's a site with a lot of Ethiopean recipes.

Ethiopian-style Lentils With Yams (or Sweet Potatoes)

Ingredients:

½ onion , diced
3 garlic cloves , minced
1 teaspoon fresh ginger , minced
½ small sweet potatoes or ½ small yam , diced
¼ red sweet bell pepper , diced
1 teaspoon olive oil
2 tablespoons lentils (split red)
1 -2 teaspoon tomato paste
1 cup water
¾ teaspoon paprika
½ teaspoon ground coriander
¼ teaspoon ground allspice
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground fenugreek
¼ teaspoon ground ginger
salt or soy sauce
black pepper

Directions:

1 saute the onion, garlic, ginger and yam in olive oil at medium heat until the onions are almost translucent.
2 add the red bell pepper and saute for an additional minute.
3 add the lentils, tomato paste and water.
4 bring water to a boil.
5 add the paprika, coriander, allspice, fenugreek and ginger.
6 lower heat slightly and allow the stew to simmer for 20 minutes or until the lentils are tender and all the water absorbed.
7 add salt, soy sauce and black pepper as needed, and serve.

As long as we're talkin' Ethiopian, howzabout some Honey Wine?

2 cups water
1⁄3; cup honey
1 (3 cup) bottle white wine (light, mildly sweet wine such as a riesling, soave or pinot grigio)

Directions:

1 In a small saucepan, heat the water and honey over low flame, stirring until the honey is completely dissolved. Remove from heat and chill completely.

2 Pour the honey water and wine together into a decorative glass decanter, mix together and serve lightly chilled.

I changed this, since the original recipe was waaay too complicated for most punky cooks (Hey, I certainly don't wanna spend days making bread! This one is much faster)

Injera, quick (Ethiopian crepe)

Serving for 2 people, yields 5 to 6 Injera...
99% Teff, 1% Self Rising Yeast *

1 lb - of Teff Flour
3 cups of luke warm water
1 teaspoon of yeast *
- a large bowl, for mixing
- large pancake pan, for baking

1. Mix by hand, 1lb of Teff with 3 cups of water along with 1 teaspoon of yeast.
2. Set aside overnight (24 hrs) outside. For fermentation to take place.

3. Preheat pan, and leave on low fire/heat during baking.
4. Bake in a circular motion, same as a pancake. Only heated on one side, takes about 2 minutes.

5. Take injera out carefully (hot) and set aside on a plate to cool down before eating.

* If this is your first batch of injera, use the teaspoon of yeast; but if you plan to make injera regularly... then save about 3 soup spoons of the mix for your next injera. This will act as a self rising yeast on your next batch of injera; save it in your fridge it will stay for over a month. This is the same process of saving some of your current dough for your next batch of sour dough cakes or cookies.

Heat up your skillet to the highest setting, just slightly above 500 degrees.

Once the skillet is good and hot (this takes a little while), you need to sprinkle about 1/2-1 tsp. salt on the surface. Using a damp, clean cloth, rub the salt into the skillet in a circular motion. You must do this after every few injeras. It aids in achieving the ain (bubbles) in the injera. But salt isn't good for the Teflon coating, so try to only use it as needed so that your mitad will last longer.

NEVER use oil on the surface!!!!! I read that oil permanently adheres to and changes the properties in the Teflon. I use my skillet only for injera. Never anything else.

Once you have salted the skillet, gently stir the injera batter to get it mixed up and pour approximately 1 cup of the starter onto the hot mitad. In Ethiopia, injera is made by pouring in concentric circles working toward the middle. In America, this method does not work. It produces a very thick injera. Perhaps this has to do with altitude? I don't really know. But I do know what works!

Your pour the starter onto the skillet then pick it up and shake it gently in order to get the starter spread out over the entire surface of the skillet.  Cover it with the lid. Once steam starts pouring out of the small vent in the mitad, lift the lid just a little to check on the injera. If it has started to lift up a little bit around the edges, it is ready to come off.

If you cook injera too long, it becomes soggy and gummy, as the steam is trapped inside.

The injera will look gummy and not good when you first take it off. As it cools, it becomes the nice spongy consistency of injera.

 Note: If you stack the injeras on top of each other right away, they will stick together and you won't be able to separate them. If you let them cool on a sheet first, then stack them, they will peel apart when you're ready to use them.

I'm starting to see that! Check out this recipe for-

Tabouleh (wheat salad)

* ¾ cup fine grain Bulgar wheat
* 2 large tomatoes , peeled
* 1 medium onion , very finely minced
* 2 cups parsley , very finely chopped
* 1 teaspoon salt
* ½ teaspoon white pepper
* ¼ cup fresh lemon juice (or lime juice)
* 3 tablespoons olive oil

Directions:

1 Soak the bulgar in a large bowl of warm water for one hour.

2 take the seeds and core out of the peeled tomato and dice them very small. set aside for about an hour (do this while you soak the wheat so they are both ready at the same time).

3 Line a mesh colander with a heavy paper towel, or a dishtowel and drain the wheat into it. Squeeze out as much liquid as you can.

4 Now drain the tomato of any water it has collected.

5 Toss all ingredients together in a large bowl and serve.

[Note: If you don't like parsley you can substitute cilantro (cross-pollination!)]

Oh there's lot's to love here! + I love me that kind of hummus with some extra lemon taste.

dave said:

Thanks, Mike, if you have any other cool Middle Eastern food recipes, please turn me on! Still a newbie at that region.

Thanks, Mike, if you have any other cool Middle Eastern food recipes, please turn me on! Still a newbie at that region.

Dave,
Off the top of my head, my hummus recipe calls for 1/4 cup of tahini and I don't add olive oil. Same basic process. I start with drained can of garbanzos, garlic cloves and the tahini and start that in the food processor then slowly add the liquid from the garbanzo bean can until I get the consistancy I want then add salt and lemon to taste. So just a little different than yours. Baba Ganoush is one of my faves, but I've never tried to make it myself. Will have to do so soon though now with your recipe.

Baba Ghanoush

Ingredients

1 eggplant
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup tahini
2 tablespoons sesame seeds
2 cloves garlic, minced
salt and pepper to taste
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Lightly grease a baking sheet.
Place eggplant on baking sheet, and make holes in the skin with a fork. Roast it for 30 to 40 minutes, turning occasionally, or until soft. Remove from oven, and place into a large bowl of cold water. Remove from water, and peel skin off.

Place eggplant, lemon juice, tahini, sesame seeds, and garlic in an electric blender, and puree. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Transfer eggplant mixture to a medium size mixing bowl, and slowly mix in olive oil. Refrigerate for 3 hours before serving.