Atakilt Wat

This Ethiopian cabbage curry is a comforting, meatless dinner made with simple ingredients. It is traditionally served with injera, a spongy, sour, flat bread perfect for scooping up the saucey goodness.  I think the beautiful sunshine today had me thinking about summertime and this is one of my favorite dishes to eat at the Multi-Cultural Festival in June.
You can purchase injera at Kishki World Foods on Highland Road in Kitchener and there is a small Ethiopian Restaurant across the street that sells it as well, along with a few traditional spices used in many Ethiopian dishes.  I want to purchase some berbere spice and try my hand at making Misir Wat, a spicy red-lentil stew that tastes delicious with this cabbage curry and is also really simple to make.
I found my inspiration for this recipe here and followed things pretty closely.  I did not add the lentils, but the addition would morph this into a nice mash-up between the two dishes all in one pan.
I sauteed a large red onion, 3 cloves of chopped garlic, and a generous tablespoon of grated ginger root in about 2 tablespoons of olive oil (add more if needed), adding a teaspoon of tumeric and a teaspoon of cumin seeds to the pan, then stirring until everything was well-combined and fragrant.  I added about a half-a-head of chopped cabbage, a generous handful of quartered red baby potatoes, and two large carrots chopped about the same size as the potatoes.  I added a generous teaspoon of chili-garlic hot sauce (in place of the aleppo pepper), salt and pepper to taste and about a 1/4 cup of water and then let everything braise with the lid covering the pan for about 30 minutes stirring every once in awhile to ensure there was enough moisture to prevent the veggies from scorching.  At this point I threw in the remains of a bag of baby spinach just because and heated everything through until wilted.

This was very fragrant and full of flavor. The potatoes were soft and absorbed the warm, gingery garlic and spices, and the carrots and cabbage gave it a sweetness that tempered the heat.  Pull back a bit on the chili-garlic hot sauce and spices if you prefer a milder taste, but this combination was perfect for our palates that are comfortable with a bit of heat and lots of spice.