Vegan Ethiopian Food

Vegan Ethiopian food is one of the easiest foods to make at home or find while dining out.

Ethiopian food is served family-style, with several large dollops of various entrees arranged on top of a giant spongey flat-bread called injera. You eat with your hands by ripping off pieces of the injera and using it to pick up portions of the entrees.

Typical Ethiopian food is full of meat and animal products like dairy, but many Ethiopian dishes are already vegan without needing any modification. This is because in Ethiopian culture it’s typical to “fast” from animal products on Wednesdays and Fridays, which means lots of great vegan options.

In Ethiopian culture it’s considered bad manners to use your left hand to eat food, so stick to using your right hand (unless you have any physical limitations preventing you from doing so).

Staple Ethiopian Foods & Dishes

Staple vegan Ethiopian foods include injera, berbere, onions, shallots, legumes, chickpeas, cabbage, potatoes, string beans, tomatoes, and beets.

Staple vegan Ethiopian dishes include shiro, misir, kik, gomen, buticha, fasolia, azifa, and alicha.

Dining Out at an Ethiopian Restaurant

Dining out at an Ethiopian restaurant is actually really easy as a vegan. Menus are often separated into meat-based and vegetarian sections and injera is always vegan.

Most Ethiopian restaurants are very accommodating and familiar with preparing vegan food as it’s an important part of their culture.

What to Ask

Do you cook with ghee (clarified butter) or with vegetable oil?
Do you offer anything for those who are “fasting?” (Fasting in Ethiopian culture means abstaining from meat.)

What to Order & How to Order It

Injera
Yetsom Beyaynetu
Lentil Sambusa

Ask your server to bring you a Yetsom Beyaynetu — an assortment of vegan entree’s arranged on top of an injera that covers a big plate. Make sure to let the server know you are fasting from all animal products, including dairy.

Just about every Ethiopian restaurant offers a Yetsom Beyaynetu on “fasting” days (Wednesdays and Fridays), but there are plenty that offer it every day of the week as well.