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A friend posted a great link on one of discussion boards all about Ethiopian nutrition and medicine.  This excerpt is from a research report entitled “The Traditional Foods of the Central Ethiopian Highlands” .. it goes on to have a detialed desription of the preparation of injera, descriptions of foods and spices… it’s a delicious report!

So if you always wanted to know what Ethioians eat… here you go! It rang completely true with me.

Plant origin foods

Cereals. The most important cereals are tef, corn, sorghum, barley wheat and millet. Tef is native to Ethiopia and a number of varieties are available. The most common are white (nech), red (geyy) and a mixture of these two (sergegna). The kind of tef most preferred is white tef. In order to get the bread as white as possible, upper-class families may wash the seeds several times.  Corn, sorghum, barley and wheat are grown at different altitudes and are used instead of or together with tef. Emmer Wheat (Triticum dicoccum) is a cereal recognized as a suitable food for children. Millet is used in part of the region, mainly for the local beer.

Legumes. The next group of importance is legumes, the most common being chickpeas, field peas, lentils and broad beans. The legumes are used in the sauce (wot) whole, split or as flour, but are sometimes toasted whole (golo) and eaten as a snack with coffee.

Vegetables. Onions (mainly red onions) are grown in large areas and used in huge quantities. Kale (yabesha gommen) is the next vegetable of importance. It is cheap and is available for most of the year. Pumpkins and green chickpeas are used when available. Cauliflower, cabbage, red beets, tomatoes, etc. are grown mainly for consumption by foreigners.

Tubers. Potato (Solanum tuberosum), sweet potatoes (Impomoea batatas) and in the Oromo communities Oromo potatoes (Coleus edulis) are used in the staple diet.

Spices. Spices play an important role in most countries in Asia and Africa, and Ethiopia is no exception. Some of the spices are grown in Ethiopia, either cultivated or wild, and others are imported, mainly from India. The most important spices are chili and bird’s-eye chili. These are used in the spice mixtures berberre and mitmitta.

Fruit. Fruit is not grown in large quantities in the central highlands. The most common fruits are lemons and bananas. Of less importance are pawpaw and orange.

Oilseeds are important cash crops. Niger flax, sunflowers and safflowers are grown in large areas. Most of the oilseeds are used for producing oil, and the oilseed cakes are exported for cattle feeding.

Foods of animal origin

Milk. The amount of milk per cow is small. Fresh milk is mainly given to small children. From milk is prepared sour milk, butter and low-fat sour-milkcheese (ayib) (see below).

Meat. The meat of the cow, sheep or goat is eaten in the staple diet. Wealthy families can afford to serve this kind of food often but the majority of the population are poor and can serve meat only on ceremonial occasions, such as religious feasts. For big feasts the cow’s meat is served raw immediately after the animal is killed. The raw meat is spiced with the spice mixture mitmitta or awaze (see below).

Chicken are common, but the eggs are mainly kept for sale, and the chicken are killed for big feasts.

Fish. Tilapia and Nile perch are available in the lakes. Fish is of very little importance in the staple diet, because of the poor transportation system.