Vegetable Wat (Ethiopian)

 

My family loves to eat Ethiopian food, so tonight we ate Vegetable Wat, our take, and my recipe, on the Ethiopian national dish which is doro wat (chicken stew.)

1 pound white button mushrooms (or whatever mushroom you love)
1 long eggplant
2 onions
3-4 cloves of garlic, diced small
1-2 inches of fresh ginger, peeled and diced small
1 large or 2 small lemons
3/4 cup water or vegetable broth
1/4 cup white or red wine
1/4-1/3 cup berberie powder (I bought mine at an ethnic grocery store in Austin)
1/2 teaspoon fenugreek powder
1 Tablespoon Hungarian paprika
1 teaspoon sea salt

I started with button mushrooms, added the juice of two lemons and a teaspoon of sea salt.  Then puree two onions, two teaspoons of garlic, and an inch or two of fresh peeled ginger to the food processor.  Cook it in a dry pot on low for about 10 minutes.  Add the paprika and fenugreek.  Then add the berberie.  After the dry ingredients, add 3/4 cup water and 1/4 cup white or red wine, then add the mushrooms and peeled, diced eggplant.  Serve over Injera bread.
The picture at the top is of the final dish served with swiss chard and bok choy with balsamic vinegar.  The blue platter is 16-inches across, to give you an idea of the scale here.

Just a note:  Ethiopian wat recipes call for a spiced butter to be added,  it is called niter kibbeh.  I left this out because I am limiting how much oil I eat for health reasons.  It is like Indian ghee and can replaced with olive oil in vegan wat.