The Reason Ethiopian Restaurants Are A Great Fit For Celiac Diners

Dining out can be tough when you have celiac disease. Fast food gluten-free options tend to disappoint at most chains (a bare burger's not too exciting), but sit-down restaurants can be even worse. Some brands, like Olive Garden, may offer what they call gluten-sensitive menus, but these foods may not be completely gluten-free due to the possibility of cross-contamination. A steakhouse like Texas Roadhouse may have a better gluten-free menu, as long as you avoid any items seasoned with gluten-containing blends. If you venture beyond chains, though, you have a wider variety of dining possibilities, including Ethiopian restaurants.

At first glance, the menu of an Ethiopian restaurant may seem like bad news for anyone wishing to avoid gluten, since the food is meant to be eaten atop large pancakes called injera. If you inquire in advance, though, you may find that even injera is not off-limits. While some restaurants use wheat flour in the recipe, it's traditionally made with a gluten-free grain called teff, and many establishments might offer 100% teff injera as an option. It could come at a slight upcharge, and it's always advisable to inquire in advance as to its availability, but teff injera not only makes for a more authentic dining experience, but one that won't trigger a gluten allergy.

Once you have the injera issue sorted out, you're free to explore the rest of the Ethiopian restaurant's menu, and you'll likely find a plethora of gluten-free options. Sure, there may be a few off-limits items such as sambusas(Ethiopia's version of samosas), since the dough wrappers may be made with wheat flour. Many other dishes, though, consist of little more than meat, vegetables, and spices and should thus be pretty safe bets (although it's always best to ask for safety's sake).

One popular Ethiopian dish is yemiser or misir wot, which consists of red lentils cooked in a tomato-based sauce seasoned with berbere. Berbere is a spice mix that can contain allspice, basil, black pepper, cayenne, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, coriander, cumin, fenugreek, garlic, ginger, nutmeg, onion, and paprika, but one thing it doesn't typically have is gluten. Doro wat,  a spicy chicken stew made with butter, berbere, and honey wine, is something else you might find on an Ethiopian restaurant menu, along with tibs, which are meat chunks cooked with onions and bell peppers in a tomato-wine sauce.

Unfortunately, there may not be any gluten-free dessert options on the menu, but if it makes you feel any better, dessert really isn't an Ethiopian thing. Restaurants may offer a selection of Western-style sweets like tiramisu or baklava, but a traditional Ethiopian dinner doesn't end with anything sugary. You can, however, make a homemade version of a sweet Ethiopian snack called shembra kolo by dipping drained canned chickpeas in beaten egg white, then rolling them in cinnamon sugar. The chickpeas are baked in the oven until they're crispy and the sugar coating has caramelized.