Injera (Ethiopian Teff Flatbread)
Injera is a flatbread eaten in Ethiopia and Eritrea. It is made with teff flour. Teff is a tiny round grain that is grown in the highlands of Eritrea and highlands of Ethiopia. While teff is very nutritious, pure teff flour contains no gluten, and little else in the way of binding proteins. This makes teff ill-suited for making raised bread; however injera still takes advantage of the special properties of…
Ingredients
- 1 cup teff flour
- 1½ cups warm but not hot water
- 1 pinch of salt
- Oil for frying
- Fermentation starter (optional; see notes)
Steps
- Mix flour, water and salt. Add fermentation starter, if using.
- Ferment overnight, at least 12 hours, until bubbles show on the surface.
- Heat large flat pan until a water droplet sizzles. Oil very lightly, just enough to make pan shine.
- Pour or ladle batter onto pan, spiralling outwards from center. Make a thin layer, a little thicker than a crêpe.
- Cook until surface is covered in holes, entire injera has changed colour and edges lift from pan. Remove and set aside. Repeat with remaining batter.
Notes from the original
- If you can't get it to ferment by itself, try a good fermentation starter like a teaspoonful of kefir. Baker's yeast alone will not make for good flavour, as bacteria are needed also, but a teaspoonful of yoghurt plus a pinch of yeast might do the trick if you can't get kefir. Note that fermentation starter may contain gluten.
- Traditional injera is made with teff, but if this is difficult to get, it can be made with sorghum or wheat flour.
- Since teff is often quite expensive outside of Africa, it is often mixed with wheat flour to give the injera some of the teff flavour but for less expense. Mix ¼ cup of teff flour with ¾ cup of sorghum or wheat flour, for the recipe above.
Source. Adapted from “Cookbook:Injera (Ethiopian Teff Flatbread)” by Wikibooks contributors, revision of 2026-04-12, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Changes. Steps rewritten into short commands. Introduction shortened. Wiki formatting removed. This adapted recipe is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Photo. Alicha 1.jpg by Rama, CC BY-SA 2.0 fr, via Wikimedia. Resized; otherwise unchanged.