How to Make Injera (Ethiopian Fermented Flatbread)

This remarkable staple of Ethiopian cuisine is used as a serving platter, as a plate and as an eating utensil. The fermentation of teff flour provides a porous injera bread as well as a somewhat sour flavor that enhances the dishes with which it is eaten.

We first encountered injera when our daughter took us to an Ethiopian restaurant and really enjoyed it. We studied how to make it and looked for ingredients for about a year before working up the courage to try to make it. It is a process but it’s really not too difficult. We first started with a recipe that used sourdough starter and teff flour but now we make injera gluten free using only teff flour. Teff flour is readily available now with several producers in the United States. Our local co-op has it in bulk. The first time we made this we had to find it online. On this page we will walk you through the process that has never failed for us. You will need to plan ahead as this can take 6 or 7 days to be ready to cook.

This recipe is naturally gluten free as it only uses teff flour and distilled water.

Watch a Video

Here is a video of 2 Cooks in the Kitchen making Injera:

Make the Teff Starter

We’ll begin this recipe by making our teff starter. This part will take us three days. We will just be using the natural yeast in the air so we only need teff flour and distilled water for this step. Teff is the smallest grain in the world and it contains no gluten so to make it work for bread we need to ferment it. This recipe is going to make 5 plate sized injera with no teff starter left over. You can double the ingredients here with no problem whatsoever. We will mix 1/2 cup of teff flour with 1 cup of distilled water in a pint jar with a lid.

We need to make sure to get this mixed thoroughly so there are no lumps of teff. Then we will cover it and put the jar in a dark place that is around room temperature and leave it alone for 24 hours. We are using a clear glass jar so we can observe what happens to our starter as it progresses. After the first day, take your starter out and have a look. You should see some liquid separating out at the top of the jar. You may start to see bubbles forming in the bottom of the jar but maybe not yet. No worries, it is still doing its thing.

After the second day you should start to see bubbles in the starter. These are the yeasties doing their job, and the bubbles will make the spongy consistency in the finished injera. It’s not ready yet so back in the dark place for another 24 hours.

On day 3 you should see little bubbles in the starter and when you move the jar you should see bubbles coming up through the starter so it looks alive. The water on the top will have a layer of foam on top and you will have created an active, living starter.

Make the Injera Batter

Now we are ready to make our injera batter. First we need to pour off and discard the water on the top of the starter. Then we are going to put 3 cups of teff flour in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment and add our starter to that.

Now we’ll turn the mixer on low and slowly add about 1 1/2 cups of distilled water until a thick dough forms. We want this to be rather stiff at this point so you may end up using slightly less or slightly more than 1 1/2 cups of water.

Keep the mixer running and let it work the dough for about 5 minutes. we are not trying to activate gluten here as you would be if you were kneading other types of bread dough, we’re just mixing all the elements to give the yeasties something to work on in the next steps. You will see the batter this out some in this process, but not too much.

Let the Injera Batter Ferment for 3 Days

Next we will put the dough in a large clear glass mixing bowl and press it down so it has a flat surface. This will grow so be sure you have a large enough bowl. Then we will gently pour a layer of distilled water over the top of the dough, being careful so it doesn’t mix in but rather creates a layer on top to keep the dough from coming into contact with the air. Finally we will cover the bowl and put it in a dark place at room temperature for three days. We are using a clear bowl so we can see what our dough is doing.

We’ll take the dough out every day and pour off the old water and pour on some new. This keeps the dough from getting as sour flavored. If you want it really sour you can just leave the same water on top for all three days.

After the first day the dough will have grown a lot. You will see air bubbles throughout the dough and it will be very active. If you didn’t use a large enough bowl you can simply transfer it to a larger one now. In that case there won’t be any water to pour off but you will still want to add a new layer of distilled water on top of the dough before covering it and returning it to a dark place.

After the second day you will see more bubbles in the dough and probably some foam on top of the water. Replace the water, cover and return to its dark home.

After the third day the dough will resemble a lively pancake batter and it is ready for the next step, tempering.

Tempering the Injera Batter

We will pour off the water and this time we want to save it in case we need to add more water to thin our batter later. From this point on we don’t want to add any more fresh distilled water directly to the batter so if we need water we’ll use what we’ve reserved.

Now we need to stir the dough well just to make sure it is evenly incorporated and then we will temper the dough. Since teff doesn’t have any gluten we need to temper it to get it to hold together. To do this we will heat 2 cups of water in a saucepan to boiling. We’ll remove the saucepan from the heat and add 1 cup of our injera batter. Return this to the heat and, using a wisk, mix this continuously until it returns to a boil.

As it heats up it will thicken quickly and considerably. Once it starts to boil it should be quite thick.

As soon as it boils we will wisk it back into our bowl of batter. You want to wisk it in thoroughly so it is all incorporated.

At this point our batter needs to be the right consistency. We want something that resembles pancake batter that falls off the spoon but leaves a thick coating behind. If your batter seems to thick to pour onto a pan like a pancake, add some of the reserved water to thin it. We’ve never had to do that, our batter has been fine as it is at this stage.

Let Sit For 2 Hours But Not More Than 4

Now we need to let the batter sit between 2 and 4 hours. The injera needs to be cooked in that two hour time span.

Cooking the Injera

When it comes time to cook it we need a flat pan at 350 degrees. the traditional pan would be a comal but we don’t have one so we use a flat griddle which works fine. You just need that large flat surface. We use an insta-pen thermometer to measure the heat of our griddle.

When the pan is hot, put some of the batter in a measuring cup so you can pour it easily and control the flow.

Pour the batter into the pan in circles, working from the outside in. Try to keep it as evenly distributed as you can.

Shake the pan a little to even out the dough. This will fill any empty spots and make the depth uniform so it cooks properly.

Cover the pan. The top of the injera will cook from the steam contained by covering it.

As it cooks you will see bubbles forming just like pancake batter.

Soon the entire surface will be filled with bubbles.

You will see the outside starting to dry out as it cooks.

Wait until all the lighter spots have disappeared from the top of the injera.

As soon as the last light spots turn dark the injera is done. It will still be a little soft on top but don’t worry, that will change as it cools. Loosen the edges carefully with a spatula and slide the injera onto a cooling rack.

Repeat this until the batter is gone. let them cool a little and then you can stack and save the injera for later use.

Explore our Ethiopian Recipe Collection for a complete meal.

• Nitir Kibbeh (Ghee) Ethiopian Spiced Butter
• Berbere (Ethiopian Spice Paste
• Injera (Ethiopian Fermented Flatbread)
• Zigni (Ethiopian Goat and Carmelized Onion Stew)
• Misir Wat (Ethiopian Spiced Lentils

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