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EveryMasala

Regional blends

Berbere

Ethiopia and Eritrea's deep red chilli blend with fenugreek, korarima and ajwain.

Berbere is the principal spice blend of Ethiopian and Eritrean cooking. Dried red chilli is the base, mixed with garlic, ginger, fenugreek, and local spices such as korarima, a cardamom relative, and ajwain. It colours and flavours stews called wat.

What goes in

Dried red chilli: 50%50%Garlic: 13%13%Ginger: 13%13%Fenugreek: 6%Korarima: 6%Ajwain: 6%Black pepper: 6%16parts

Parts by volume of the whole spice. The ring shows each part's share.

Made step by step

Each drawing shows the operation for that step. Ratios and timings differ from house to house; this is one traditional-style way.

  1. Step 1: Dry Sun dry the chillies until crisp.
  2. Step 2: Toast Dry roast the fenugreek, ajwain, korarima and pepper.
  3. Step 3: Rest Cool the spices.
  4. Step 4: Grind Grind everything together with garlic and ginger.
  5. Step 5: Blend Mix and sieve to an even red powder.
  6. Step 6: Bloom Bloom in spiced butter with onion to begin a stew.
  7. Step 7: Store Store in a sealed jar.
  8. Dried red chilli: 50%50%Garlic: 13%13%Ginger: 13%13%Fenugreek: 6%Korarima: 6%Ajwain: 6%Black pepper: 6%
    Finished Berbere, by share.

Family recipes

Many families dry, roast and mill their own batch, and neighbours often share the work. The recipe can run to more than a dozen ingredients and is handed down. Shops also sell ready-made versions.

Use

It is cooked in niter kibbeh, a spiced clarified butter, with onion for doro wat, a chicken stew. It also seasons lentils, beef and raw minced beef dishes. Fasting foods use it with vegetables and pulses.

Where it is used

Doro watMisir watKitfoTibs

The spices in it

KorarimaKorarima.FenugreekSeed.Chili pepperThe pungent berry of the Capsicum plant, used to add heat to dishes worldwide.GingerThe pungent rhizome of a flowering plant, widely used as a spice and folk medicine.Black pepperThe dried fruit of a climbing vine, the world's most traded spice.

Also part of it, and being written: Ajwain (Carom.).

More on EveryMasala

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Sources and further reading

About this page

Original text and drawings by the EveryMasala desk, written with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. The shares are an illustrative, traditional-style ratio, not a standard: every family and maker blends differently. If we have something wrong, tell us.

Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

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