Misir Wat (Ethiopian Spiced Red Lentils)
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One of Ethiopia’s most popular vegetarian dishes, this Misir Wat recipe showcases lentils in a way that’s unlike any you’ve had before. The flavor is simply out of this world! Vegetarian-friendly and so delicious that even devout carnivores won’t miss the meat!
For more delicious and authentic Ethiopian dishes be sure to try my Doro Wat, Sega Wat, Gomen, Injera, and homemade Niter Kibbeh!
It’s been said that the best vegetarian cuisines in the world are Indian and Ethiopian and I can’t disagree. The flavor profiles of both cuisines bring even the blandest ingredients to life with their rich combinations of spices and herbs.
Misir Wat (also Misir Wot) is one such example of a dish that truly excels in the vegetarian realm. A dish featuring red lentils, an abundantly available crop, Misir Wat is a staple dish throughout Ethiopia and one of the most popular vegetarian dishes in Ethiopian restaurants. If you order a mixed combination platter at an Ethiopian restaurant or order vegetarian, misir wat is almost always among the selections.
Misir wat starts with onions that are slowly caramelized in niter kibbeh, Ethiopia’s popluar and incredibly flavorful spiced clarified butter. Garlic and tomato paste are added. The comes a generous dose of berbere, Ethiopia’s famous chili seasoning blend. It’s normally fiery-hot (and what you get in Ethiopia is even hotter than what you typically find outside of the country), but our blend tones down the heat and gives you the option of adding it according to your preference.
The lentils are then slow-simmered with these highly aromatic and flavorful ingredients until they’re soft. Another spoonful of niter kibbeh and berbere are added in at the end for an added boost of flavor.
Misir wat is typically served with injera, Ethiopia’s staple fermented flatbread that’s also used as an eating instrument to scoop up the lentils.
Misir Wat Recipe
Let’s get started!
Melt 3 tablespoons of the niter kibbeh in a medium stock pot. Add the onions and cook over medium-high heat for 8-10 minutes until golden brown.
Add the garlic, tomatoes, tomato paste and 1 tablespoon of the berbere and cook for 5-7 minutes. Reduce the heat if needed to prevent burning.
Next we’re adding the broth. As with everything I recommend using the best ingredients you can find and the broth we love and recommend with enthusiasm is Aneto. We visited their factory in Barcelona Spain a year ago and watched the entire broth-making process from start to finish. It was so inspiring! Check out our post about it and take a virtual tour.
Aneto selects fresh, free-range chicken and the freshest vegetables and slow-simmer it in gigantic pots for several hours to produce the highest quality broths on the market. No concentrates, powders, artificial ingredients, “natural flavors”, GMO’s, fillers or flavor enhancers of any kind. Just pure, whole, real ingredients. We love and highly recommend Aneto.
For misir wat you can use either chicken broth or if you’re vegetarian, vegetable broth.
Aneto’s broths are sold in store locations throughout the U.S.. Alternatively you can also find them on Amazon, though the prices are higher there. The best value is the 6-pack chicken broth. See also the vegetable broth.
Stir in the remaining tablespoon of niter kibbeh and berbere. Simmer for a couple more minutes. Add salt to taste.
Enjoy!
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Misir Wat (Ethiopian Spiced Red Lentils)
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons niter kibbeh , divided
- 1 large yellow onion, very finely diced
- 3 cloves garlic, finely minced
- 1 Roma tomato, very finely chopped
- 3 tablespoons tomato paste
- 2 tablespoons bebere , divided
- Homemade Berbere (strongly recommended)
- 1 cup red lentils, rinsed
- 2 1/2 cups Aneto All-Natural Chicken Broth
- vegetarians: use Aneto Vegetable Broth
- 1 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Melt 3 tablespoons of the niter kibbeh in a medium stock pot. Add the onions and cook over medium-high heat for 8-10 minutes until golden brown.
- Add the garlic, tomatoes, tomato paste and 1 tablespoon of the berbere and cook for 5-7 minutes. Reduce the heat if needed to prevent burning.
- Add the lentils, broth and salt, bring it to a boil, reduce the heat to low and cover and simmer the lentils, stirring occasionally, for 40 minutes (adding more broth if needed) or until the lentils are soft.
- Stir in the remaining tablespoon of niter kibbeh and berbere. Simmer for a couple more minutes. Add salt to taste.
- Serve with Ethiopian injera.
Nutrition
Hi, I’m Kimberly Killebrew and welcome to Daring Gourmet where you'll find delicious originals, revitalized classics, and simply downright good eats from around the world! Originally from Germany, later raised in England, world-traveled, and now living in the U.S., from my globally-influenced kitchen I invite you to tour the world through your taste buds!
I might be using different lentils than the recipe, but it takes at least 2 hours to simmer down the liquid to make it a “scoopable” consistency! Just keep that in mind when planning how long this recipe might take. Next time I will try to remember to use about 30% less liquid than is called for and just use more bullion to compensate for the lack of flavor that gets boiled down and condensed in the final dish. I also like to add carrots and/or peas in the last 30 or so minutes of simmering to add texture and visual interest!
I really enjoyed this. I was a bit worried about the berbere, since I didn’t have whole dried peppers; I just used ordinary red pepper flakes, so the amount and the heat level was something of a guess. But the level of heat turned out okay, albeit on the mild side, and the actual flavour was delicious.
I’m not a fan of sourdough so I used roti instead of injera. I also bumped it up to 1 1/2 cups of lentils, and increased the broth and spices to compensate, which gave me three generous servings.
I should have enough berbere and niter kibeh left for both the doro wat and sega wat recipes too, which I’m looking forward to making.
Had this recently on a visit to OKC, was looking forward to trying to recreate it. Turned out great. Cheated a little on the niter gibbah, used already prepared ghee, let spices simmer in it for about 15 minutes or so as I chopped the onion and garlic to add to it, then simmer that for a while as I chopped up the onion and garlic for the misir wot. Next time I’ll try to make injera to serve with it. Thanks for the recipe.
Fantastic, Cron, I’m thrilled you enjoyed it, thank you! And that’s a perfectly acceptable cheat! :)
Hello, this recipe looks delicious and I can’t wait to try it! I was wondering if maybe you know how to make or know where to direct me to find the sweet and delicious salad dressing recipe used in the ‘green salad’?? Thank you :)
Hi Kiki, I’m not sure but perhaps one of our readers can chime in…
This recipe turned out great! I recently had Ehtiopian food and wanted to see if I could recreate misir wat. The only changes I made which seemed to work out fine is that I used a tomato that wasn’t a roma and instead of making the niter kibbeh, I just added some ginger, garlic, cumin, and oregano while I was cooking the onions in butter. Delicious!
Fantastic, Melissa, thanks so much for the feedback, I’m thrilled you enjoyed it!
Love this recipe – a regular at my house. Thanks so much! Love your page
Thank you so much, Megan, I’m thrilled that it’s become a regular!
This is THE BEST. My family prefers this recipe over any restaurant. It has even been requested by family members who come visit from out of town. Thank you!!
I’m so thrilled to hear that, PB, thank you very much! :)
Thank you for posting this. I used one instead of four tablespoons of the ghee, since I wanted to lower the calories. It still turned out great. I also needed to increase the liquids by about 1/2 cup. It was so easy and delicious!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it, Jen, thank you!