This recipe is a part of my Global Vegan Challenge where each week I research and develop a recipe from a different country in the world. Many of these recipes are veganized based off their omnivore counterparts. While not all of these recipes are a one for one what you’ll find in their country, I hope you’ll still find them delicious!
Recipe Notes
- It took me a few tries to get this down, so don’t beat yourself up if it doesn’t turn out the first time. In fact, you can see some of my failures in my Instagram story here. For my most successful batch I followed Martie A Cooking’s Injera in 3 Days video as a guide. I made some slight tweaks to her recipe that I’ve listed below. If you need a visual guide or just want to see her original take I highly recommend her video!
- Fermentation is a process, so pay attention to smells. It should smells sour, but not like rot.
- Take these measurements as a guide, and not gospel. Pay attention to texture and if it looks off feel welcome to add more or less flour / water.
Injera
Yield
~20 8 inch pieces
Prep Time
10 minutes
Fermentation Time
48 – 96 hours
Cooking Time
20 minutes
Print
Ingredients
4 cups Teff Flour (ivory or dark is fine – I used ivory)
1 1/2 cups Water
1/2 cup All Purpose Flour
2 – 3 teaspoons Baking Powder (
1 teaspoon Dry Active Yeast
Lots of extra water.
Directions
- Mix 1 cup of teff flour with all purpose flour. Set aside.
- Mix 1.5 cups of lukewarm water with yeast. Add to teff and flour mixture and mix well. Cover with plastic wrap and store at room temperature for 24 hours.
- After 24 hours there may be water sitting on top of the teff mixutre. Pour off water and discard. Place mixture in a mixing bowl and sift in 3 cups of teff flour. Mix well.
- While mixing slowly add water until the batter becomes watery and about the thickness of crepe batter. Cover with plastic and let sit for another 24 to 48 hours.
- While teff is fermenting check in on it periodically and smell. It should begin to smell sour, and maybe a little funky but not like compost (if it smells terrible – throw it out and start over). The longer is sets, the more sour it will become.
- After it’s done fermenting there may be another layer of water on top. Pour this off and discard. Add 2 teaspoons of baking flour and mix well. The mixture will likely thicken in the fermentation process so you may need to add small amounts of water until you achieve the right texture. The texture should be less thick than pancake batter, but more thick than crepe batter.
- Warm a nonstick skillet to medium high, then pray with vegetable oil once hot. Slowly pour in a thin amount of teff mixture in a circular spiraling motion until you achieve the size of injera you want.
- Pay close attention to the batter because it will cook very quickly.When the bubbles begin to form throughout the batter place a clear lid on top and remove the pan from the heat. You’ll see the injera change color and once it’s entirely uniform, remove the lid and touch the top. The texture should be tacky, but not wet. If wet, replace the lid for a little bit longer.
- Once cooked, remove injera from skillet and allow to cool. Note that injera will feel tacky or even under cooked until it’s cooled, but once it’s cooled it will have that signature sponginess. The finished bread at it’s thickest should be around 1/8 inch thick.
- If you’re not seeing many bubbles and your injera is coming out too dense, mix in another teaspoon of baking powder into the batter.
- Repeat steps 7 – 9 until you use up the remaining batter. Serve immediately or store covered in plastic in the fridge for up to two days.
And as always, the omnivore reviewer’s take!
