Ethiopian Berbere Beef Stew

Winter has set in quickly this year, and so our menu has changed rather abruptly from BBQed meat and salads to comforting, cook-all-day type of stews.

While it’s easy to reach for the same old stew recipe, occasionally it’s satisfying to try something new. And even more when the ‘new’ can be added to the ‘old favs’ category!

Once the adventurous spirit was upon us, we decided it was time to jump continents and see what other people groups considered their ‘old favs’.

And so we discovered this Berbere beef stew recipe.

Berbere spice serves as a key ingredient in the cuisines in both Ethiopia and Eritrea. It’s rich, earthy flavours lend themselves as the flavouring base for beef, lamb, chicken, lentils or vegetables.

Rather than being a single spice, this aromatic berbere spice is made up of many different spices.

We can see you gasping at the number of ingredients just to make the spice blend, but we promise that this unforgettable blend can be made up in under 10 minutes, and you’ll have enough to make this dish three times 😊 And if you don’t have a particular spice, trying substituting a similar spice or beg from a neighbour or friend!

And depending on how you like to cook, we’ve included both stovetop and slow cooker instructions.

If this recipe has joined your ‘old favs’ list, we’d love to know 😊

PS. And if you need a little more convincing that spices can form a really amazing part of a healing journey, check out this informative, inspirational blog post from Wholefood Collective (an Aussie small family business whom we adore!). Aren’t we blessed to have access to such remarkably powerful foods? Now go and make yourself a cinnamon tea 😉 

Aromatic Ethiopian Berbere Beef Stew

Beef Stew ingredients:

• 2 tbsp ghee or oil of choice
• 1 kg stewing beef, diced into 4cm pieces
• 2 onions, thinly sliced
• 3 garlic cloves, crushed
• 2 tbsp finely chopped ginger
• 400g tinned diced tomatoes
• 500 ml beef bone broth

Berbere Spice Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp dried onion flakes
• 2 tbsp sweet paprika
• 4 tsp ground coriander
• 2 tsp ground cardamom
• 2 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp cracked black pepper
• 1 – 2 tsp chilli flakes
• 1 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground fenugreek
• ½ tsp ground allspice
• ½ tsp ground cloves

Stovetop Instructions:

1. Heat a large heavy-based pot over medium high heat. Add half the ghee or a dash of oil.
2. Add beef in batches and brown well. Set aside while you finish cooking the remaining beef.
3. Heat remaining ghee and add the onion, frying for 5 – 10 minutes until it is golden brown.
4. Add garlic and ginger, stir and cook for a further 2 – 3 minutes.
5. Add 2 tbsp Berbere spice (or to taste), tomatoes and broth and bring to a simmer.
6. Return browned beef back to the pot, cover and reduce heat to very low. Cook for 2 ½ – 3 hours, stirring occasionally, until the beef is quite tender.
7. Remove the lid and cook for a further 1 hour til the sauce has reduced and beef falls apart easily.
8. Taste and season with salt and pepper or more Berbere spice if necessary.
9. Serve with flatbread.

Slow Cooker Instructions:

1. Heat a medium heavy-based pot over medium high heat. Add half the ghee or a dash of oil.
2. Add beef in batches and brown well. Set aside while you finish cooking the remaining beef.
3. Heat remaining ghee and add the onion, frying for 5 – 10 minutes until it is golden brown.
4. Add garlic and ginger, stir and cook for a further 2 – 3 minutes.
5. Add 2 tbsp Berbere spice (or to taste), tomatoes and just 1 cup broth and bring to a simmer.
6. Transfer spicy sauce ingredients to a medium-sized slow cooker, along with the browned beef.
7. Cook on low for 6 -8 hours, adding some extra broth if the sauce has reduced too much.
8. Taste and season with salt and pepper or more Berbere spice if necessary.
9. Serve with flatbread (see note below).

Serves: 4 – 6

Berbere Spice Blend:  yields approx. 7 tbsp

Recipe Notes:

• Any stewing beef cuts will work – you could try brisket, chuck, gravy beef, or blade steak.
• We didn’t have this spice mix in our cupboards, so we presumed you may not either and decided to include the recipe. We did ‘cut corners’ by using ground spices instead of whole spices that we’d toasted, but we won’t tell if you don’t! At the end of the day you simply can’t beat the freshness of a homemade batch.
• Although stews featuring berbere spice are traditionally very spicy, we’ve reduced the amount of chilli so that your whole family can enjoy it. But if you’re a spice-lovin’ family, feel free to increase the amount of chilli!
• Remaining berbere spice will keep in an airtight glass jar for up to 6 months in a dark cupboard, or can even be frozen.
• This is traditionally served with a fermented flat bread made from teff flour, but the stew can be mopped up with any flat bread and we can guarantee it will taste amazing!
• This stew is even better the next day after the flavours have had more time to meld.

Recipe Inspiration