How Traditional Ethiopian Breakfast Is Made

Ful is one of the most popular breakfast dishes

in the horn of Africa and Middle East,

and what makes Ethiopian and Eritrean ful

very different and unique

is the special spice blend called berbere.

Ful is widely known for the North Africa, Middle East

and it goes on to the Mediterranean, including Greece.

Every country has their own version.

The one that I'm gonna be making

is the original ful which comes from Ethiopia.

I'm Chef Eden Gebre Egziabher,

born in Ethiopia from Eritrea heritage,

and today I'll be making

traditional Ethiopian Eritrean ful breakfast.

[soft upbeat music]

Ful is a fava bean stew, simmered down with onions,

a little bit of spice, jalapeno and garlic

and then we have our different types

of topping with berbere.

Onion is such a big part of Ethiopian Eritrean cuisine.

We love onion.

I don't think we have a dish that onion is not included.

The ful dish is no different.

So we're gonna add a good amount of onion,

both for the topping as well

as to simmer down the fava beans.

We're gonna do garlic.

You just smash it, add a little bit of salt

and then you chop it finely.

My mother, grandparents, almost everyone that I know

would do it like this.

Jalapeno is traditionally found in Ethiopian Eritrean ful.

Other cultures would add

their own choice of spice mixed in with garlic.

All right, so we're ready to layer up the flavors

and cook the fava beans.

A little bit of olive oil

and we're gonna add in our onions.

It doesn't have to sweat.

Add our garlic paste.

I know that most of the time you may not

be able to find fresh fava beans that's readily available.

It's very seasonal.

Using canned fava beans is actually not skimping

on the authenticity in regards to flavor

and everything else is fairly similar.

We're gonna add jalapeno.

We're gonna add in our cumin.

Cumin is great for any type of stew

especially when it comes to fava beans.

It needs a lot of flavoring.

Fava beans may not be a very popular bean

on the American side,

but it's a very ancient legume consumed for centuries.

It dates back all the way to fourth century.

People have used it as a great source of protein, iron,

which makes it great for breakfast.

Put a good amount of salt.

It has been cooking for a little bit.

We're gonna mash the beans.

You don't necessarily want it to be, like,

similar to a mashed potato.

You don't wanna completely mash it.

This breakfast is very nostalgic.

This is something that I grew up eating

every single Saturday.

I'm gonna just take a small bite

just to see if it has enough seasoning.

Oh, this is perfect.

Now that we have cooked our ful,

there are different toppings that go on ful

to bring the whole meal together,

and one of them is the berbere spice.

When you're talking about Ethiopian and Eritrean food,

the most distinctive flavor that we have is the spice blend.

It's very versatile.

Anywhere from stews to stir fries to condiments.

You can use it cooked or uncooked.

There are two components to it.

One is your ground spices.

We have rosemary, garlic, onion and ginger.

And on the other side you have your warm spices.

The Ethiopian cardamom is an absolute must.

Another name for it is false cardamon.

Besobela, which is sacred basil.

We have koseret, black cumin, coriander,

white cumin, black peppercorn and fenugreek.

And lastly, but the most important is the kashmiri chile.

If you don't have access to that,

you would wanna pick a milder chili.

Typically an Ethiopian Eritrean chef

wouldn't use such a small grinder.

Since this is such a big staple spice blend,

it's usually made in big batches,

enough to last you anywhere from six months to a year.

And so after you sun dry

every single ingredient that you have here,

you actually take it to a special place

that they can grind every product that you have

and make sure that it is at its perfect quality.

I'm gonna toast my cardamom.

Coriander goes in there.

A little bit of white cumin, fenugreek, black cumin.

We're gonna toast this for a couple of minutes.

Toasting it actually wakes up the flavor,

especially with the cardamom.

It just really transform it.

So Ethiopian cardamom is fairly similar

to other types of cardamom,

but what makes it very distinct

is how concentrated and potent it is.

You don't need a lot of it.

All you need is a very small amount of it.

Oh, I smell the cardamom.

It smells really, really distinctive and powerful.

And I'm gonna add the besobela,

the koseret, black peppercorn,

a small amount of salt.

The rest of my spices.

Berbere is an extremely important part

of Ethiopian Eritrean cooking.

Every single person and family member have their own version

of this berbere spice,

and so I actually take like pride and joy

in saying that this is a berbere

that's prepared from my family.

We are finally ready to plate our ful.

You're gonna start with your fava beans, your ful.

The tomato is gonna give you that softness,

liquidy, in a way like wet texture.

Then jalapeno and bell pepper.

I like the texture of bell pepper.

The onion is gonna give you that sharp crunchiness.

Parsley is something that I've added,

which gives it like a nice garnish.

I have my hard-boiled egg.

Usually Ethiopians and Eritreans,

they might either choose hard boiled eggs or scrambled eggs.

It's kind of up to your preference.

And it goes with yogurt,

because we're gonna be sprinkling the berbere spice.

As you're eating this in the morning,

for those that want that spice, they can have that,

but also cool you down with this yogurt.

And finally, it is our berbere spice.

Gonna add a drizzle of olive oil.

This plate loves olive oil.

You can dig in with a spoon.

Usually it's served with some sort of flatbread.

I'm gonna use this flaky, beautiful fatira bread

that is also native to Ethiopia.

It looks flaky and somewhat similar to croissant

but it doesn't have the amount of butter that croissant has.

I'm just going to dig in with my hand.

The fava is so creamy, it's not dry at all.

I taste the crunch of the jalapeno.

The yogurt is giving a nice cut from that spice

that I taste from the jalapeno.

You can serve it up to three or four

and you can eat it together.

A lot of Ethiopian and Eritrean cuisine

is very communal which is perfect

because each person can kind of customize to their liking.

It's not an overwhelming spicy dish.

Super packed with protein, flavorful, great breakfast.