Gomen

Ethiopia's everyday greens: collard or kale leaves stripped, chopped, and stewed slowly with onion, garlic, ginger, and a little spiced clarified butter into a soft, savoury mound, scooped up by hand with injera

Origin: Ethiopia

From the journey of Kale.

Gomen is the everyday green of Ethiopia and Eritrea, as constant on the table as injera itself. The word, ጎመን in Amharic, names both the leaf cabbage and the dish made from it, and the leaf in question is most authentically the native Ethiopian kale, Brassica carinata, the Abyssinian mustard domesticated in the highlands of the Horn of Africa thousands of years ago and quite separate from the European cole; outside Ethiopia, ordinary collard greens or curly kale stand in for it perfectly. Unlike the fiercely spiced stews, the wat, that anchor the Ethiopian feast, gomen is gentle and restorative: the leaves are stripped from their tough stems, chopped, and stewed slowly with onion, garlic, ginger, and green chilli, enriched with niter kibbeh, the clarified butter infused with spices that is the defining fat of Ethiopian cooking. The result is soft, mellow, and faintly mustardy, a quiet green counterpoint to the heat and depth of the meat and lentil stews it accompanies. Gomen appears at the everyday meal and the great communal platter alike, where mounds of different dishes are arranged on a single round of injera and torn up, by hand, with more injera. In its richer form, gomen besiga, it is cooked with cubes of lamb or beef; in the fasting traditions of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, it is made simply with oil and is wholly vegan.

Ingredients

The Greens

  • 700 g collard greens or kale, tough stems removed, leaves finely chopped

The Stew

  • 2 tbsp niter kibbeh (Ethiopian spiced clarified butter), or oil for a fasting version
  • 2 large onions, finely chopped
  • 4 cloves garlic, finely minced
  • 1 tbsp fresh ginger, finely grated
  • 2 mild green chillies (such as jalapeño), deseeded and sliced
  • 0.5 tsp ground cardamom
  • 250 ml water, plus more as needed
  • 1 tsp salt, or to taste

Method

  1. Bring a large pan of water to the boil, add the chopped greens, and blanch for 5 minutes to soften them and take off their raw edge. Drain well and press out the excess water.
  2. Melt the niter kibbeh in a wide heavy pan over medium heat. Add the onions and cook gently, stirring often, for 12 to 15 minutes until very soft and golden.
  3. Add the garlic, ginger, green chilli, and cardamom, and fry for a further 2 minutes until fragrant.
  4. Add the drained greens and the water, season with the salt, and stir well. Cover and stew gently for 20 to 25 minutes, stirring now and then and adding a splash more water if it dries out, until the greens are completely soft.
  5. Taste and adjust the salt. Serve warm, as part of a spread with injera and other dishes, or alongside rice.

Notes

The most authentic leaf is the native Ethiopian kale (Brassica carinata), but collard greens or curly kale give an excellent result. Niter kibbeh, the spiced clarified butter, is what makes the dish taste distinctly Ethiopian; it is sold in Ethiopian grocers or easily made at home by simmering butter with onion, garlic, ginger, cardamom, fenugreek, and other spices, then straining. For a vegan fasting-day gomen, use oil in its place. A pinch of ground fenugreek or a little fresh holy basil are common regional additions.

The Gastrographer

The Gastrographer

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Ingredient originTrade or transit route
Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control
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