An Ethiopian misir wot recipe with red lentils and vibrant, spicy flavor
My favorite way to enjoy Ethiopian food is a platter with a selection of meatless dishes. My favorite part of that colorful array? Misir wot.
Truth be told, if I could only eat one part of that vegetarian plate — in fact, if I could only eat one lentil dish, ever — it would most certainly be misir wot. This dish takes a handful of humble ingredients, including split red lentils, onion, garlic and spices, and turns them into something spectacular. It’s definitely a case of the whole being greater than the sum of the parts.
I’d made a few admittedly halfhearted forays into misir wot in the past, and none of them came close to restaurant-level satisfaction. So I approached this mission with some trepidation and fear of failure. My first test of the recipe from “Ethiopia: Recipes and Traditions from the Horn of Africa,” by Yohanis Gebreyesus with Jeff Koehler, was a huge step in the right direction. But I wanted to see if I could add more depth. With some advice from my colleague and eater-about-town Tim Carman, I turned to the chefs and restaurateurs behind two tried-and-true Ethiopian restaurants.
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Endalkachew Mekonnen of Nazret Ethiopia Restaurant in Falls Church, Va., made a few recommendations with pinpoint accuracy. He suggested washing the lentils well and taking care not to overcook them, one of my first test’s biggest missteps. Also: Adding fresh ginger to the dish; cooking the mixture of onions, garlic and ginger with the trademark berbere spice blend slowly; and vastly increasing the amount of the blend, which counts chiles, cinnamon, cloves and cardamom among its ingredients.
The advice from Meaza Zemedu of Meaza Restaurant, also in Falls Church, was almost exactly the same. She emphasized the need to really cook down the onion mixture. “To make a stew, you need to have time,” she told me. I took her wisdom to heart, increasing the low-and-slow cook time of the onions from 10 minutes to almost half an hour. The difference was astonishing. The time brought out the rich color and flavor of the berbere, as well as the alliums. Just as helpful: Zemedu said I could add the lentils directly to the skillet rather than cooking them separately. One-pot cooking? I was all in.
After a few more tests incorporating these suggestions and playing around with the spice level, I achieved a misir wot that I could be proud of — and could whip up at any point given the standard contents of my pantry. Spicy, savory, earthy and packed with tender but not mushy lentils, this was a testament to persistence — and the generosity and wisdom of smart chefs. It’s best served with injera, the teff-based fermented flatbread from Ethiopia, but rice or another flatbread of your choice would be fine, too.
Keep in mind that the perception of spiciness in the berbere can vary by person as well as by blend. I settled on 4 teaspoons, though if you’re concerned about heat, you can drop it to 2 teaspoons, as the original recipe had as a starting point. If you want it spicier, increase the amount on your next batch (don’t stir it in at the end; it will be too sharp). I also tried as much as 2 tablespoons, which packed a significant punch.
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The final tweak I stumbled upon almost accidentally. I discovered that refrigerating the dish overnight really matured the flavors. I had waited long enough to perfect this recipe, so in the grand scheme of things, another 24 hours seemed a drop in the bucket. Try it, and you, too, will appreciate the payoff of time well spent.
Recipe notes: Misir wot can be refrigerated for up to 4 days. Reheat in the microwave on full power (covered) or on the stove top over medium-low to medium heat, stirring occasionally. Leftover mekelesha spice blend can be stored in an airtight container in a cool, dark place for up to 2 months.
Berbere and nigella (also known as black cumin, black caraway, kalonji and charnuska) are available at Ethiopian markets and online from retailers such as Penzeys and Kalustyan’s. Want to make your own berbere? Check out this recipe from our archives.
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