Mesir Wat, an Ethiopian dish involving serious amounts of lentils, fiber, and joy

So I think mesir wat is my new favorite way to get fiber. Lentils are immensely high in fiber, along with a giant pile of other nutrients. See, we happened upon an Ethiopian grocery a few weeks back, whereupon I was struck with an overwhelming urge to buy a pound of red lentils. When trying to figure out the best way to ingest said lentils, I stumbled upon a recipe for mesir wat, and decided to have a go at it.

I grabbed the recipe from this website, and I will include my mildly hackneyed version of it here. First, here’s your ingredient list:

• 1 chopped onion
• two cloves worth of garlic (I used garlic from a jar)
• 2 tsp or thereabouts fresh ginger, peeled and minced
• 1/4 cup oil
• 2 tbsp paprika
• 1 tsp turmeric
• about a tsp of chili powder
• 1 lb red lentils
• Salt and pepper

It’s really really good, and goes well on rice. Had I more forethought I could have bought or made some injera, which is Ethiopian bread, but alas, forethought is not my forté. So I dumped some on flour tortillas, which was pretty good despite being bizarrely fusion food, I suppose.

I’ve only eaten Ethiopian food once before (that I can recall, at least), at a restaurant in DC. It was really good, and I’m glad I decided to try making some myself. I’m definitely making this again, as this recipe was simple, cheap, and made a metric ton of mesir wat. Drew and I got several meals out of it, and there’s still a container in the freezer for emergency purposes. And, incidentally, it’s an excellent way to use up paprika. To me, paprika is what goes on top of deviled eggs, and if I use it just for that purpose, I have enough to last me the next 5 years at least. So, it’s nice to expand my paprika repertoire, as it were.

Oh, and I have one more picture, the mesir wat, alongside some palak…chicken/paneer?

I was really ambitious that night, so I decided to also make some tomato-based palak paneer. While it was good, it was not as spectacularly delightful as the mesir wat. The downfall? No good cheese foresight. I was all like “Hey, I have muenster and Mexican cheese, that’s just like Indian paneer…right?” Alas, it was good, but wasn’t quite the same. In the horrors of realizing I didn’t have the proper cheese, I dumped in some last minute chicken, which helped a bit. One of these days, when I need Bonus Calories, I’ll have to try making some cream-based palak paneer. With the proper cheese. Or perhaps with tofu, which might counteract that whole “cream-based” thing.

Mmm…cream-based.

These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.

The Knish Was Delish And It Made Quite A Dish!

I am a Deviled Egg Nazi (though I prefer to think of it as ‘Purist’)