Berbere Spice Blend

Name: Berbere Spice Blend
Total time: 20 min
Yield: 20
Cuisine: Ethiopian
Ingredients: 60 g Dried mild red chillies; 3 tbsp Paprika; 1 tsp Fenugreek seeds; 2 tsp Coriander seeds; 2 tsp Cumin seeds; 6 Cardamom pods, seeds only; 2 tsp Ground ginger; 1/2 tsp each Cinnamon, cloves, allspice, ground; 1 tsp Salt

The red backbone of Ethiopian cooking: dried chilli ground with a dozen warm spices into a blend that is hot, faintly sweet and unmistakable in every wot.

Fuente

Receta de Ethiopian home kitchens · 🏺 Tradicional · Everyday Ethiopian cooking — the injera table where stews are ladled straight onto the bread and everyone eats from one platter with their hands.

Ethiopian & Eritrean · spice blend — An ownerless traditional preparation, so no cook is credited. The cited article confirms berbere as the Ethiopian and Eritrean chilli-based spice mixture containing fenugreek, coriander, cardamom, ginger and other warm spices, and its central role in wat. Proportions here are this book's own; every household's differ.

Background on Wikipedia ↗

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Pasos

Wipe the chillies clean, tear them open and shake out most of the seeds.
Toast the whole spices — fenugreek, coriander, cumin, cardamom — in a dry pan over medium heat for 2 minutes, until they smell warm and start to pop.
💡 Fenugreek turns bitter fast. Pull the pan the moment the smell shifts from nutty to sharp.
Toast the chillies separately for 1 minute, moving them constantly — they scorch in seconds.
Cool everything completely, then grind to a fine powder in a spice grinder.
Stir in the paprika, ground ginger, cinnamon, cloves, allspice and salt.
Store in a sealed jar away from light. It keeps its punch for about three months.

💡 Consejos

Grinding warm spices makes them clump into paste. Cool them fully first — the single most common mistake.
Every household's blend differs. Ethiopian cooks judge it by colour: deep brick red, never orange.
Toast a spoonful in oil before adding liquid to any stew — that step is what makes berbere taste cooked rather than dusty.