It's always a good sign when I'm not blogging because it means I'm doing some real writing. But lately I've gotten some compliments on this blog and it turns out I like compliments more than productivity. So here we are!
I have about 1200 favorite foods. But the food that is my favorite for the most reasons is Ethiopian red lentils with injera bread. Ethiopian red lentils, particularly at Rosalind's, my fav spot, are insanely flavorful. I love sour-savory flavor combos, so the spongy sourdough bread used as both plate and utensil is the perfect way for me to eat this amazing food. My mouth is watering for this dish and I essentially JUST ATE IT. What's more, unlike my other favorite foods, lentils are insanely good for you. They're pretty much all fiber and protein, and extra starch can be rinsed or soaked out. A huge portion, the way I cook them, is still only about 275 calories. When I eat lentils, I feel full for like 9 hours, which happens with no other food. If you're skeptical, I get it. Usually, I can't eat more than a few bites of a lentil salad or soup because its boringness offends me. Not so when you make them Ethiopian style.
full AF now
I was always intimidated to try making this dish (rightfully so in the case of injera because I couldn't get teff so it turned out quite poorly). Berbere, the spice blend at the core of Ethiopian cuisine, was tough to find, as were recipes. But a few months ago I gave it another shot. Now, berbere can be ordered on Amazon and is also stocked at Whole Foods 365. It's probably always been at regular Whole Foods, but I can't go in there because it makes me bleed money. I bought Marcus Samuelsson's African cookbook, "Soul of a New Cuisine" but was disappointed to find only one recipe for Ethiopian lentils, and it didn't specify red ones. I've since tried my red lentil recipe with green lentils, and it turns out sweeter and less flavorful. I was also disappointed in his injera bread recipe that claims you don't need teff because I made it and it was not injera bread. Marcus, come on, man! I combined a few recipes I found online with Samuelsson's (you can find my bastardized recipe at the bottom of this post), and now make this dish constantly. Instead of injera, I have it with basmati rice or sourdough baguette. I've even topped avocado toast with some and it ruled. But the reason you're reading about this on a pasta blog is that I thought, "Wait a minute... a carb and mushy dish? I SHOULD MAKE RAVIOLI."
So I did. This is a recipe for guilt-free pasta. Most of what you are eating in this dish is protein, fiber and good fat. So what difference will a tiny little pasta wrapper make other than in deliciousness?
Sourdough pasta recipes all require a sourdough starter, which I do not have, so instead of doing that as an injera substitute, I added berbere to my pasta dough and made a nice, sour lemon romesco to get that flavor punch. Romesco sauce is so easy and good and can go on everything and keeps for a week in the fridge. There are a million recipes out there, but any recipe that's even close to traditional uses roasted red peppers. You can buy a jar, or do it yourself. I normally love the lazy route, but in this case, I had no jar but I did have peppers. So! First, you roast some sliced red peppers (or red and yellow, if that's what you got) with 3-5 whole cloves of garlic. Toss it all in olive oil, salt, pepper and paprika and bake for about 20-25 minutes at 475 degrees.
the fox approves
While that was roasting, I made my dough. Berbere is a mix of twelve spices that become a magical one when combined. It's spicy and fragrant and brick red, so it added beautiful color and flavor to my dough. I've been eyeballing my flour-egg ratio lately, and was heavy-handed with my use of berbere, but if you substitute two teaspoons of berbere for two of flour in your pasta dough recipe of choice, you should be good.
While my dough rested in a tight lil plastic wrap ball in the fridge, I made my romesco sauce. There are a billion recipes for this, so I improvised. Combine your cooled red peppers and garlic with raw almonds, lemon juice, lemon zest, smoked paprika, salt and olive oil and food process the hell out of it. Taste, adjust according to your likes, and you're good.
Now, ravioli time. I stirred in some panko breadcrumbs to my cold, leftover lentils, just enough to make sure there wasn't moisture in my filling that would soak through my pasta. And then I treated the pasta dough and filling like normal. My hearty, favorite lentil stew, instead of being served over rice or with bread, went perfectly into pasta! I glossed up a plate with olive oil to prevent sticking, plopped some sauce in the middle, and cooked my raviolis like normal.
HEAVENLY. Except I always forget how rich and filling romesco sauce is, so this is what my plate looked like after:
It's ok, I saved it for the raviolis in the freezer
My experiment was a success, and now I feel like I have a guilt-free, protein-rich, totally unique meal in my back pocket. Next up, maybe a curried lentil ravioli in a coconut broth. Or a soy and mirin cooked lentil in a miso broth. Or a Swedish meatball ravioli in a bowl of furniture!! Ravioli are anything you want them to be.
PS. If you work for a lentil company, I am available to be your spokesmodel
Ethiopian Red Lentils a la Ali recipe
serves: 1 single girl for like 5 days
Ingredients:
1 yellow onion, peeled and cut into 8 pieces
1-2 inches ginger, peeled and cut into 6 chunks
4-6 cloves garlic, peeled
3 tablespoons ghee, plus extra on hand in case aromatics stick (butter or grapeseed oil can be substituted, but ghee is traditional and ideal)
Berbere (I go crazy and use like a third of a jar. A couple tablespoons should suffice)
2 cups red lentils
1 lemon
Salt
Instructions:
1. In a food processor, finely chop the onion, ginger and garlic until it's like a wet paste. Yum! Paste!
2. In a large pot, melt the ghee. Add the berbere and combine.
3. When the butter and berbere gets fragrant and starts to bubble, add the onion, ginger & garlic mixture, including any liquid they gave off when chopped. Cook until the sharpness of the onion goes away, stirring frequently. Basically, cook until cooked, not raw. About 5 minutes is good.
4. Add the lentils and as much water as the package suggests. The first bag I got used a 2:1 ratio of water to lentils, the ones from Whole Foods 365 are a 4:1 ratio. Squeeze the juice of the lemon in. Mix everything up and cover.
5. Do your dishes, go grab your mail, call your mom. Just keep an eye on lentils to make sure they don't boil over but otherwise just leave them alone.
6. When the lentils start to really absorb the water, stir occasionally so that the ones on the bottom don't stick there. You can also taste your lentils when most but not all of the water is absorbed. They will definitely need salt to bring out the flavor, cause they are fiber queens, so sprinkle in a little at a time and taste. If you oversalt or just really like sour-savory like me, add more lemon juice and/or berbere.
7. Lentils are done with the moisture is absorbed completely, or you get hungry and decide soup is fine. Basically, whenever you feel like it. The photo toward the top of this post is one of the instances where I got impatient, hence the soupiness.
8. Serve with rice or bread (ideally injera or sourdough), or treat like stew and top with sour cream/greek yogurt, avocado, crispy things, whatever your heart desires.
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