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Teff Injera -Ethiopian Flatbread

Traditional sourdough injera - A gluten free Ethiopian flatbread
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Ethiopian food is often served with teff injera. It is a naturally fermenting sourdough flatbread. Injera has a deliciously nutty and sour flavour that nicely compliments traditional spiced stews. See the bottom of the post for links to stew recipes.

Ingredients

Scale

Preferment

  • 1 1/2 cups of teff flour
  • 1 3/4 cups water

Remaining Ingredients

  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 egg (see notes)
  • vegetable oil (for frying)

Instructions

  1. Mix the teff and water in a glass container. Leave it somewhere warm to ferment for 12-24 hours. It should develop into a nice bubbly starter pretty quickly.
  2. When you are ready to cook, beat in one egg and add salt to taste (about 1/2 tsp).
  3. Heat a non-stick skillet on medium heat and lightly oil.
  4. Put in a small amount of batter, then turn the skillet around so that it forms a thin pancake (though not as thin as a crepe).
  5. Cook slowly on one side until it has firmed up. Injera is traditionally cooked only on one side. It is supposed to be quite wet and soft on the other side. However, if you want to cook both sides, make smaller pancakes and flip them.
  6. Serve right away, or allow them to cool, then store between layers of wax paper to keep them from sticking.

Notes

  • Look for teff flour in African grocery stores, in the gluten free area of a health food store, or online (affiliate link.)
  • Traditional recipes don’t use an egg. However, it is difficult to prevent injera from sticking to the pan and falling apart without some sort of binder. Most restaurants replace up to 1/2 the teff in their injera with wheat flour. I added the egg to keep this recipe 100% teff. If you want to make it egg free, then no replacement for the egg is necessary. Either make really small pancakes, or replace part of the teff with wheat flour.
  • To make really large injera you need to invest in an injera pan. Otherwise, just make smaller injera in a frying pan.
  • See the section below for links to my favourite injera stews.

Keywords: gluten free,sourdough, crepes, pancakes, traditional, teff, vegetarian, dairy free, nut free, soy free, sugar free

Find it online: https://www.fermentingforfoodies.com/ethiopian-injera-flatbread/