ethiopia

EthiopiaThe cradle of human beings The Birth Place of Coffee

Diet in EthiopiaReligion dictates nutritional habits: Ethiopian Orthodox do not eat meat, eggs or diary products (any animal product with the exception of fish) on Wednesdays & Fridays.

A number of religious “fasts” ; the longest of which is the Easter fast or “Kudade Tsom” which lasts about 55 days. Lentils, peas, field peas, chick peas, and peanuts-are used in making the Wat (traditional stew).

For most Ethiopians, who are either Orthodox Christian or Muslim, eating pork is forbidden.

The hand washing ceremony before and after meals is a religious ritual

Ethiopian DietEthiopian culture and, thus, food customs have

been influenced very little by other countries.

Ethiopian cooking is very spicy. In addition to flavoring the food, the spices also help to preserve meat in a country where refrigeration is rare.

The Typical Cuisine Ethiopian cuisine is mostly made up of

breads, stews (known as Wot), grains, and spices.

Berbere (pronounced bare-BARE-ee) is the name of the special spicy paste that Ethiopians use to preserve and flavor foods. According to Ethiopian culture, the woman with the best berbere has the best chance to win a good husband.

Berbere consists of white pepper, black pepper, chili pepper and salt to make a basic ingredient in many Ethiopian dishes

Desert time!Ethiopians rarely use sugar in

their cooking, honey is occasionally used as a sweetener. An Ethiopian treat is injera wrapped around a slab of fresh honeycomb with young honeybee grubs still inside.

Food Culture

When you have dinner in an Ethiopian home or restaurant, you eat the tablecloth! Ethiopian food is eaten with the hands, using pieces of a type of flat bread called injera.

People share food from a common plate. It signifies the bonds of loyalty and friendship.

The traditional way of eating is with fingers. "Injera" is placed on the plate with variety of dishes

decoratively arranged around it. A small portion of "Injera" is torn off and wrapped around a mouthful of the selected dish.

When the food and the Injera "tablecloth" are completely consumed, dinner is over.

Injera is a major food staple, and provides approximately two-thirds of the diet in Ethiopia.”

Ethiopian Injera: Ingredients

1/4 cup teff flour3/4 cup all-purpose

flour 1 cup water a pinch of saltpeanut or vegetable oil

Injera Background• National dish of Ethiopia• Yeast-risen flatbread with unique, slightly-

spongy texture• Traditionally made with teff flour, which is

often expensive and has limited production- Substitutions: wheat, barley, corn, rice

• Used as eating utensil, plate, and food

Injera: Nutrition Facts

• Serving size: 1 injera (12” diameter)– 166 calories– 1.6 grams fat• .32 grams saturated fat

– 37.4 grams total carbohydrates• 1.4 grams dietary fiber• .7 grams sugar

– 6.3 grams protein

Lentils with Yams: Ingredients

½ onion, diced3 garlic cloves, minced1 teaspoon fresh ginger½ small yams, diced¼ red sweet bell pepper, diced1 teaspoon olive oil2 tablespoons lentils (split red)

1-2 teaspoons tomato paste1 cup water2/3 teaspoon paprika½ teaspoon ground coriander¼ teaspoon ground allspice¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon¼ teaspoon ground fenugreek¼ teaspoon ground ginger, salt, soy sauce, or black pepper

Lentils with Yams: Nutrition Facts

• Serving size: 1 (116 grams)– 245 calories– 5.5 grams fat• .8 grams saturated fat

– 42.2 grams total carbohydrates• 12.7 grams dietary fiber• 7.7 grams sugar

– 9.5 grams protein

Nutritional Data

Sustainability of Ethiopian Dishes

We determined our measure of sustainability was the basic availability and locality of the ingredients used in the dishes. Ethiopia, being one of the major coffee producers of the world, is still a poverty stricken country despite the help it gets from charity organizations around the world. Their traditional dishes like wat and injera, rely on ingredients that they can grow or produce themselves.

Sustainability of Ethiopian Dishes

Depending on the region, major crops include coffee, cereals (teff, corn, wheat, etc.), pulses (lentils, chickpeas, etc.), oil seeds (fenugreek, sunflower, etc.), roots and tuber (potatoes, beets, yams, etc.), fruits and vegetables, fibers (cotton, flax, etc.), and sugarcane.

Sustainability of Ethiopian Dishes

The main food crops are produced by subsistence farmers meaning there isn’t very much food that goes into the community. Rather these farmers produce only enough to feed themselves and their families which by itself is a challenge.

Sustainability of Ethiopian Dishes

The ingredients for the stew we made are all grown or produced in Ethiopia. The national dish of Ethiopia is a meat stew called wat. Wat can be made with any kind of meat and a number of different roots, vegetables, or pulses depending on what’s available. There isn’t a definite recipe for any of their dishes because the people cook whatever they have available to them on the farm which means that making these dishes is very sustainable.

Sustainability of Ethiopian Dishes

Injera is a type of bread that Ethiopians use as both an accompaniment and a utensil for whatever is prepared. It’s made of teff flour, a major crop of Ethiopia, water, salt and either vegetable or sunflower oil. All of these ingredients are also grown, produced and are otherwise available in Ethiopia which means the food doesn’t travel far from farm to plate.

Nutritional Data

The “Dilemma”

Local and Organic or Cheap and Easy?

New Seasons Safeway

Butter .90 (L) .25Milk 1.19 (L) 1.12Eggs .25 (L/O) .17Cheese 5.99 (L) 2.99Macaroni 2.05 (O) .99Onion .89 (L/O) .68

Total 11.27 6.20

Amt. per Person 1.41 .78

Sustainability of the American Dish: Baked Mac N’ Cheese

Milk, Cheese, Butter and Eggs can be found at many Oregon farms. Tillamook- is a well known farm * Oregon farms are nationally recognized for their fine milk products!

Pasta could be made with flour from an Oregon farm such as, Riddell Farm Inc.

Onions can be bought from Wild Onion Farm in Oregon City.

Mustard Powder can be bought from Mustard Seed Farms, its been being grown in eastern Oregon since 1960!

Sea Salt can be boiled out of sea water where as black pepper, paprika, and bay leaf would have to be privately grown or store bought. (Though paprika may be found in southern Oregon)

How to measure-

• Because almost ten percent of energy (fossil fuels) used in the United States is in Industrial farming, and a large part of that comes from food transportation and chemical distribution sustainability of the American meal was based on availability of product locally and organically.

To be or not to be . . .

While all ingredients could be found locally and it’s not nearly as cheap on the pocket if you decide to travel to each farm, nor is it fun to wait several months for your pepper to grow . . .

The option of making sustainable Mac N’ Cheese is available, just not practical.

Leaving it up to the consumer to decide how sustainable he or she would like to make the dish.

Fat Breakdown

Ethopian Dish

SaturatedMono.Poly.

Mac & Cheese

SaturatedMono.Poly.

Nutritional Values

Carbohydrate Protein0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Ethopian DishMac & Cheese

Cholesterol Sodium Potassium Magnesium0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

0.9

Ethopian DishMac & Cheese