Ethiopian Lentil Stew
Ethiopian Lentil Stew is a deliciously healthy and spicy vegetarian lentil recipe with homemade berbere spice, spiced butter, and satisfying lentils. Every spoonful of this delectable meal will have you sighing in pure delight. And you won’t even miss the meat!
Here in California, there are excellent Ethiopian restaurants. And they really know how to spice up food. Especially their Ethiopian lentil stew. No boring food here!
Rich layers of complex flavors make it one of my favorite Ethiopian side dishes. And my family never complains when I put this exquisiteness on the table. It goes excellent with injera, rice, or quinoa. Yum!
What Is Ethiopian Lentil Stew?
Ethiopian lentil stew is a classic with wholesome ingredients and warm flavors. It has also been called misir wot, mesir wot, and yemisir wat (wat or wot means food in Amharic). But, whatever you call it, the unique taste is its signature.
Berbere spices give this lentil stew its classic Ethiopian flavors. Making my own allows me to customize it because you know I can’t leave it alone. 😉 And don’t forget super easy Ethiopian spiced ghee. It adds incredible flavor to these stewed lentils, but you can switch it to coconut oil if you want a vegan-friendly meal.
Recipe Ingredients
Stewed lentils make a simple dish with simple ingredients, so it’s easy and satisfying!
- Lentils – These tiny legumes are great nutritionally because a cup boasts 16 grams of protein and a ton of fiber. Oh yeah!
- Spices – Aside from the usual onion, garlic, ginger, cumin, paprika, and parsley, berbere sauce really ramps up this lentil recipe!
- Tomato Paste – Adding tomato paste thickens the stew while adding a lovely combination of sweet and sour.
- Broth – Vegetable broth will make it deliciously vegetarian, while beef or chicken broth will add protein. It just depends on your preferences.
How to Make Lentil Stew
Four Easy Steps
- Soak – Wash your lentils, then let them soak while you prepare the seasonings. (Photos 1-3)
- Sauté Spices – Heat a large saucepan with oil and spiced butter, then add onions, berbere spice, garlic, ginger, cumin, and smoked paprika. Stir occasionally for 2-3 minutes until the onions are translucent. (Photos 4-5)
- Add Lentils – Then add the soaked lentils and tomato paste. Stir and sauté for 2-3 more minutes. Add stock, broth, or water and season with salt. (Photo 6-11)
- Simmer – Bring to a boil and let it simmer until it thickens. It might take about 30 minutes, depending on how you like your lentils. Throw in some parsley, adjust for salt and pepper, and adjust the stew’s consistency. (Photo 12)
- Serve warm with injera.
Recipe Variations
- Broth Swap – You can choose from vegetable or chicken broth. Use vegetable broth to make it completely vegan or chicken to add more flavor. If you want a stronger taste, use beef broth instead.
- Meaty Additions – If you want to add meaty protein, sausage, chicken, or beef are excellent choices.
Tips and Tricks
- Brown lentils taste earthy; green is peppery; red and yellow are sweet. Choose depending on your liking, but my go-to is red or yellow. It’s the family’s fav!
- Homemade berbere spice is best, but you can purchase it from an Ethiopian market or online.
- Soaking the lentils for about 2 hours may save cooking time, but it’s not necessary.
Make-Ahead Instructions
You can soak the lentils while prepping the other ingredients, such as onion, garlic, and ginger, then proceed with the recipe. Let the finished lentil stew cool and store it in an airtight container or freezer-safe resealable bag in the fridge or freezer for another day. Just heat them when you’re ready to serve.
Serving and Storage Instructions
Serve it warm after throwing parsley and adjusting the taste. Go for a whole Ethiopian meal experience by serving it with injera.
You can refrigerate the leftovers for five days or freeze them for three months. Reheat on a stove or microwave when ready to serve. You may add more water or broth as needed.
FAQs
The earthy flavor is mild on its own, but it gives a meaty texture to any dish. Which is one of the many reasons vegetarians and vegans enjoy this dish. Spicing it up works well because of its mild flavor, making it an ideal base for vegetarian hamburgers.
Lentils are legumes that are relatively smaller and quicker to cook than beans, so most recipes don’t require soaked lentils. But soaking the lentils saves cooking time and makes them easier to digest.
Lentils are very nutritious and versatile, so think of these like white paint that goes well with any color. It can absorb varied flavors of spices and seasonings. Thus, it mixes well with onion, garlic, homemade spice mix, and more!
What to Serve With Ethiopian Lentil Stew
Aside from injera, you can also try it with these side dishes below for a fantastic fusion of cuisine.
More Delicious Ethiopian Recipes to Try
Conclusion
This deliciously spicy lentil stew is so easy and satisfying for a stress-free weeknight meal. Does your family do a meat-free day? Tell me in the comments what your menu choices are when you do. ❤️
Watch How to Make It
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This blog post was originally published in December 2015 and has been updated with additional tips, new photos, and a video.
Ethiopian Lentil Stew
Ingredients
- 1-2 tablespoons (14-28g) spiced butter (or coconut oil)
- ¼ cup (60ml) cooking oil
- 1 large onion, diced
- 1½ tablespoons (14g) berbere spice
- 2 teaspoons (6g) garlic, minced
- ½ tablespoon (1g) fresh ginger, minced
- 1 teaspoon (2g) coriander or cumin
- 1-2 teaspoons (2-4g) smoked paprika
- 1 cup (200g) lentils, soaked for 2 hours
- 1 tablespoon (14g) tomato paste
- 2 cups (475ml) broth (beef, vegetable, chicken, or water)
- 2 tablespoons (8g) parsley, chopped (or cilantro)
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Wash your lentils, then let them soak while you prepare the seasonings.
- Heat a large saucepan with oil and spiced butter, then add onions, berbere spice, garlic, ginger, cumin, and smoked paprika. Stir occasionally for 2-3 minutes until the onions are translucent.
- Then add the soaked lentils and tomato paste. Stir and sauté for 2-3 more minutes. Add stock or water and season with salt.
- Bring to a boil and let it simmer until it thickens. It might take about 30 minutes, depending on how you like your lentils. Throw in some parsley, adjust for salt and pepper, and adjust the stew's consistency.
Tips & Notes:
- Don’t have the spiced butter? You can switch it out with coconut oil.
- Brown lentils taste earthy; green is peppery; red and yellow are sweet. Choose depending on your liking, but my go-to is red or yellow. It’s the family’s fav!
- Homemade berbere spice is best, but you can purchase it from an Ethiopian market or online.
- Soaking the lentils for about 2 hours may save cooking time, but it’s not necessary.
- Please keep in mind that the nutritional information is a rough estimate and can vary significantly based on the products used in the recipe.
I never comment on food blogs, but this recipe is quite special for me. I make it ALL THE TIME. It is literally a joy to make and eat. Thank you to introducing me to berbere. I have been making it for years. And the collard greens are amazing too. Thank you from New York!
Ethiopian food is my favorite food in the world. After having eaten at lots of mediocre Ethiopian restaurants and a few really good ones, I imagined that Ethiopian food would be difficult to make at home. However, since I am not leaving the house during the Covid 19 pandemic, there is plenty of time to experiment.
I bought the berbere on Amazon and waited eagerly for it to arrive. Everything else I had on hand. This dish is very inexpensive, which is nice since I am currently unemployed.
Anyway, as I said I didn’t expect much but I was pleasantly surprised at the fullness of flavor in this recipe. I wish I had used a smaller onion, and my berbere was spicier than I expected, but I eased the heat with a little bit of butter. I also added a couple dashes of ground cloves and a tiny bit of sugar. I will definitely use this recipe again with a smaller onion. Thank you!
Coming from a fellow sister.. I am humbled. Thank you!!!!
Thank you Imma for this recipe!! It was absolutely delicious and so easy to follow. I’m from Melbourne in Australia and have recently discovered Ethiopian food. My local fruit market started selling Injera bread and my husband has been nagging me to try my hand at a dish! Thanks to your recipe it was a hit!
Hi Nathalie, I am from Melbourne too! Just wondering which market you get your injera from?
Why ¼ cup cooking oil?
I thought it’s either niter kibeh or coconut oil.
I had lunch at an Ethiopian restaurant for the first time and my favorite food there was their lentil stew so I Googled its recipes and your site came up. I like how your readers have actually tried your recipes and posted comments not just mention how they should try it because it looks good. Anyhow, I had all the ingredients to make your berbere spice mix from scratch and I used it to make your lentil stew. I have to say yours tasted SO MUCH better than the one I had at the restaurant. I love your spice mix. Thank you so much for this recipe. I am looking forward to trying your other recipes.
Thank you so much for the kind words and for taking the time to let me know.
This is so amazing! I made the collards and the lentil stew. The flavors were absolutely perfect! I did order some berbere seasoning off of Amazon since it wasn’t available here. I used to love to go to Meskarem in the Adams-Morgan section of DC and this was so very close! I can’t thank you enough! Do you have a lamb dish to accompany this?
Awesome! Thanks Aline. I absolutely do. Here are two https://www.africanbites.com/slow-cooker-lamb-leg/ and https://www.africanbites.com/grilled-lamb-chops/. Enjoy!!!
Simple to make, tastes just like the restaurant if not better! This is definitely one of my go-to recipe sites. Thanks Imma!
Aw that’s so sweet, thank you Jennifer! 🙂
Hello,
Thanks for bringing this to my attention. I have updated recipe to make it clearer.
I LOVED this recipe! Lentils are sooo healthy. I could eat a 1/2 cup of this recipe 3 to 4 days a week.
I love lentils too! I am glad the recipe turned out well for you. Thanks for stopping by!
This recipe!!! OH MY GOSH!
I used coconut oil and it tasteeeee so good.
Even my husband said that it’s much better than the one in th restaurant!
Thank you so much! 🙂
You are welcome Stefie! Glad it was a hit!
I would like to make this dish but as I am Vegan, I will not be able to use the Ethiopian Spiced Butter. Is this dish still flavourful without it? If I used Coconut Oil instead would it overpower the dish with its coconut flavour? Also, is the parsley for garnish or does it get mixed into the stew? Can it be dried parsley or does it need to be fresh?
Hello,
Coconut oil works just fine and the parsley is primarily for garnish. Happy Cooking!!!!
hi Coco!
i’m vegan as well and HIGHLY recommend making the spiced butter with vegan/non-dairy butter. i cannot stress enough how WILDLY DELICIOUS it is and absolutely makes this, and any, dish.
ImmaculateBites, thank you so much for your magic in cooking! your recipes are every single thing and super easy to adapt to make any non-vegan dish vegan. i’m seriously so grateful.
What kind of lentils did you use?
I used brown lentils.
This dish is amazing It is everything. I enjoy Ethiopian food. This was the first Ethiopian dish I made and yes I did that. I even made my own berbere spice. It is jammed packed with flavor and spicy. Love it. Awesome recipe Imma.
made these today and they were GREAT! this has inspired me to take the plunge and try a full ethio meal using your recipes. there’s an afro-caribbean market not far from me, so i’ll stock up on all the other spices and pantry items i need, then here i come!
Hi! Theres no recipe for the green vegies … ? injera bread need no recipe.
Hi. You may get the recipe for the Ethiopian Collard Greens here >>> https://www.africanbites.com/ethiopian-collard-greens/ and the Injera here >>> https://www.africanbites.com/injera/ Enjoy!
What type of lentils did you use? Brown? Green or red?
Any would do fine. I used the yellow ones for this recipe.
Thanks Rebecca, don’t have that feature yet. Will pass it over to the plugin developer.