ethiopian | Cadry's Kitchen

exterior nile restaurant As I’ve mentioned many times on my blog, if there’s one type of ethnic cuisine that I wish I had easy access to, it would be Ethiopian. I was completely spoiled for amazing Ethiopian fare when I lived within driving distance of Rahel Ethiopian in Los Angeles. I’ve made my own at home many times (using recipes from Vegan Lunch Box and Vegan Eats World). However, nothing beats having it at a restaurant, especially when you consider the convenience of not having to make your own spice mix, infused oil, several types of stews, and injera for scooping all of them up.

So when my husband and I were in Orlando recently, I was only too happy when he suggested that we hit up Nile Ethiopian Restaurant for dinner. Located on busy International Drive (known as I-Drive), it’s situated in a strip mall and surrounded by theme parks, restaurants, and hotels. While the area doesn’t seem like the likeliest of places to find mouthwatering and authentic Ethiopian cuisine, looks can be deceiving. Nile isn’t a vegetarian restaurant, but the plant-based stews on the menu are all made with infused oil (not dairy butter) and are vegan-friendly.

interior nile restaurant The interior of the restaurant is a large room with standard tables and chairs (and oddly a television playing, which felt more like a sports bar than a sit-down restaurant). Then there are several small rooms made with dividers for eating in a somewhat private setting on small stools and sharing a meal on a basket dining table called a mesob.

David and I tucked into one of the rooms and ordered the Taste of Nile Vegetarian platter to share for $29.95. It included portions of several of their vegan items and was a chance to try multiple things. They were very busy that night, and so the service was on the slow side. I wondered if dining in one of the rooms was a bad idea on such a night, and at one point thought we’d been forgotten altogether. However, after waiting for a while, the man who seated us came in to see if we’d been served, and before too much longer we were brought our drinks and then dinner.

ethiopian wots As is typical, the wots were served on injera, a sour, spongy bread, in addition to a basket full of more bread to use in place of utensils. Their injera was light in color and texture, almost crepe-like in its consistency. The sourness of the bread didn’t overwhelm and allowed the wots to take center stage.

Tikel Gomen, made with cabbage and carrots, was slow cooked with garlic and ginger. The soft, moist cabbage was mild but hearty. Gomen, made with collard greens, is always one of my favorites. Cooked with onions, garlic, and oil, the rich collards melt in your mouth with a vaguely metallic quality.

The Kik Alecha and Shiro, both made with split peas, and the Misir Wat, made with red lentils, were smooth and creamy. They were cooked with onions and garlic, and the red lentils had the addition of a red pepper sauce.

ethiopian wots - nile restaurant I usually opt out of Tomato Fitfit, which is made with ripped pieces of injera, tomatoes, green peppers, onions, oil, and lemon dressing. It sometimes feels like it’s just a way to use up yesterday’s old injera, and I’ve never been much of a soggy bread fan. However, the dish at Nile is different. It has a strong citrus flavor. (It tasted like lime to me, but it says lemon on the menu.) The fresh, bright fruitiness was a wonderful compliment to the spicier and more melded flavors of the other wots.

Azifa is a cold lentil dish made with onions, green peppers, lemon juice, and Ethiopian mustard. The mustard must have a fair amount of horseradish in it, because it was the kind of dish that clears your sinuses. Although I am a horseradish fan, I definitely couldn’t eat a whole platter of it. However, it was a strong, pungent kick to have as an occasional bite.

The plate was finished off with a romaine lettuce salad for fresh, neutral bites to clean the palate from spicier flavors.

nile ethiopian orlando Because Ethiopian food often uses the same spices (berbere) and the same infused oil (niter kibbeh) for all of the dishes, the stews can sometimes taste a little same-y. While the vegetables are different in each dish, the overall tone can start to feel pretty similar. Luckily that wasn’t the case at Nile. All of the stews were markedly different from one another. Each one had its own layers of flavor that balanced and complimented each other well. Plus, the wots were not too oily or heavy as can be the case at some restaurants.

After polishing off our wots, we leaned back very comforted by the authentic and satisfying flavors. In an area of Orlando known for spills and thrills more than gomen and wots, Nile is a jewel!

As Vegan Mofo was drawing to a close, one of the things that excited me the most was thinking about cracking open some of my newest cookbooks. At the top of the list – Vegan Eats World. I’ve written about Terry Hope Romero’s last solo cookbook endeavor, Viva Vegan, many times over on my blog. In fact, it’s gotten to the point that her name has become synonymous with “Mmm” in my house. If I’m trying a new recipe and my husband asks who created it, and I say Terry Hope, he’s instantly counting down the minutes until dinner.

Living in a small town after spending many years in a food mecca means that our options have become considerably more limited restaurant-wise. The downside to that is that I sometimes end up cooking when I’d much rather go out. The upside to that is that I sometimes end up cooking when I’d much rather go out. Over the time we’ve been here we’ve saved money by cooking at home, and I’ve become a better cook. Things that I wouldn’t have bothered to learn how to do if I was still living in Los Angeles have become second nature.

Sometimes when I’m trying to figure out what to make for dinner, my husband and I will play “what if.” What if we were in Los Angeles? Where would we go for dinner? Then I base the evening’s meal on that particular craving. There is one flaw in this game. Nine times out of ten, David says that he’d eat at Rahel Ethiopian, the all-vegan restaurant in Little Ethiopia. Well, hey, me too, but unless a person has made spice blends ahead of time and infused oil/vegan butter in preparation, it’s not exactly a quick meal. (If you’d like to find out more about Rahel, you can read all about it on my review.)

So I took the opportunity when David was out of town for work last week to get started on the spice mix, infused oil, and stews (wots) while he was away. I figured a home-cooked Ethiopian meal would be a fun surprise when he returned.

First, I followed the recipe in Vegan Eats World for the berbere spice blend, which involved cutting open cardamom pods to use the seeds from inside, toasting cumin seeds, fenugreek seeds, peppercorns, and cloves, and grinding it with other spices in the coffee grinder. (I cut back on the cloves to two instead of six, because I’m not crazy about them.) In the end I had two standard-sized spice jars filled with berbere for future use!

To make infused oil (niter kibbeh), onions, garlic, ginger, cinnamon sticks, fenugreek seeds, turmeric, and cloves went into a pan with oil & vegan butter. After releasing the flavors into the oil, the contents of the pan are poured through a metal strainer, leaving just the flavorful oil behind. The oil keeps in the refrigerator for months, meaning that the next time a Rahel urge strikes, I can run to the kitchen instead of the computer to look up airplane ticket prices.

Terry has several Ethiopian recipes in VEW, and one of them, Cauliflower and Green Beans in Berbere Sauce, is open to variations. While it’s listed as using green beans and cauliflower, it can be made with any combination of collard greens, cauliflower, green beans, potatoes, or carrots. I decided to make that dish twice – once with collard greens and once with cauliflower and carrots. It came together easily with all of those signature Ethiopian spices.

For a third stew, I made Seitan Tibs simmered in berbere and wine (seitan tibs w’et). This dish is made with seitan coriander cutlets, which I steamed instead of baking. I’d never had anything like this dish at an Ethiopian restaurant since it’s based on a meat dish. With lots of spices and a long simmer with red wine, this dish has flavors that are reminiscent of French cuisine but with an Ethiopian twist. Both David and I were blown away by the deep, rich, and complex flavors. This is a dish that impresses.

For the injera to scoop the wots, I made the injera from Vegan Lunch Box that I’ve made several times, but there is an Ethiopian-style crepe recipe in Vegan Eats World, along with a few more Ethiopian dishes to try in the future. After stuffing ourselves with injera & wots we were almost transported to Little Ethopia, and we didn’t even have to fight traffic on the 405! Next step, figure out how to grow my own sun-drenched beaches, palm trees, and mountains, and I’ve got it made!

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