A simple and a delicious Ethiopian stew/gravy made in Instant Pot with yellow split peas and turmeric. A recipe from my Instant Pot Vegetarian Cookbook.
I love Ethiopian food, and I first tried Ethiopian food in one of the restaurants in Sunnyvale. I was amazed by the vegetarian options, and the food reminded me of Indian cuisine, especially the lentil stews and dry curries. I love the way they serve their meal. They prepare the Injera (the Teff flour bread) – the Ethiopian bread and lay it out in a plate and then place all the curries circularly including their salad on the bread. And you will be getting individual plates of Injera too. Lovely right?
My Cookbook | Instant Pot Vegetarian Cookbook
My love for Ethiopian food made me include two of my favorite dishes in my cookbook. One is this yekik alicha or the yellow split peas stew with turmeric and to know the other one you need to grab the book. When I moved to the States, 11 years ago, I got introduced to a lot of new cuisines. It opened up a new Arena, and I started to recreate my favorites in my kitchen, of course, the vegetarian version with readily available ingredients. That’s what you will find in my book as well.
Seventy-five healthy global recipes that you can make in your Instant Pot with readily available ingredients. I have dedicated chapters for vegetables and sides, soups, beans and legumes, rice and pasta, other grains, and desserts – all eggless. Each and every recipe comes with nutrition information as well. So it is easy for you to count the calories. Please do check out the book on Amazon and also don’t forget to enter the giveaway.
Giveaway:
You can now win an advance copy of my Instant Pot Vegetarian Cookbook today! It’s easy to enter and easy to win. Click the link below and say what’s your favorite go-to vegetarian meal? Share your response in the Facebook post comment section and tag your friends for a chance to win. You can tag as many friends as you like :-) It’s as simple as that!
Click here to enter the giveaway!
The giveaway will run till Friday (May 24, 2019), and I will announce the winner on Saturday. (Open to U.S. residents only, must be 18 or older to enter).
Now back to the simple recipe. Here are the video and the written recipe.
Instant Pot Yellow Split Peas with Turmeric
Ingredients:
- 2 tsp corn oil
- One yellow onion finely chopped
- Two garlic cloves finely chopped
- 1 tsp finely chopped ginger
- ¼ cup red bell pepper cut into ½ inch dice
- 1.5 tsp Kosher salt
- ½ tsp turmeric powder
- 1 cup yellow split peas, soaked for 10 minutes and drained
- 3 cups of water
Steps:
- Set the Instant Pot in the saute mode and add the oil. When the oil is hot, add the chopped onion and garlic and saute until translucent or for about five minutes.
- Add the ginger and bell pepper and saute for 1 minute. Press the cancel button.
- Mix in the salt, turmeric, yellow split peas, and the water. Close the lid and make sure the vent is in the sealing position.
- Select the “Manual” and set the cooking time to 15 minutes at on High. After cooking, allow the pressure to release naturally.
- When the pressure is released, carefully open the lid and mash the lentils with a ladle.
- Serve hot with rice or any flatbread.
Notes –
- Adjust the salt according to your preference.
- You can make this stew with red or green lentils as well.
- If you are relishing this as a soup, you can add more water.
📖 Recipe
Instant Pot Yellow Split Peas with Turmeric | Yekik Alicha
Ingredients
- 2 tsp corn oil
- 1 yellow onion finely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves finely chopped
- 1 tsp ginger finely chopped
- ¼ cup red bell pepper cut into ½ inch dice
- 1.5 tsp Kosher salt
- ½ tsp turmeric powder
- 1 cup yellow split peas soaked for 10 minutes and drained
- 3 cups water
Instructions
- Set the Instant Pot in the saute mode and add the oil. When the oil is hot, add the chopped onion and garlic and saute until translucent or for about five minutes.
- Add the ginger and bell pepper and saute for 1 minute. Press the cancel button.
- Mix in the salt, turmeric, yellow split peas, and the water. Close the lid and make sure the vent is in the sealing position.
- Select the "Manual" and set the cooking time to 15 minutes at on High. After cooking, allow the pressure to release naturally.
- When the pressure is released, carefully open the lid and mash the lentils with a ladle.
- Serve hot with rice or any flatbread.
Video
Notes
- Adjust the salt according to your preference.
- You can make this stew with red or green lentils as well.
- If you are relishing this as a soup, you can add more water.
Nutrition
I am not a nutritionist. The nutritional information is provided as a courtesy and is an estimate only. It varies depending upon the product types or brands.
I haven’t had this dish before and I used fresh turmeric instead of dry, so I don’t know if it made any difference, but wow the flavour was lovely. I made a half portion first to try it, as such a simple recipe I wasnt expecting much, but liked it so much I immediately went back and made a full one. Also partly because my meat loving husband and I ate it all for lunch lol. He loved it too!
Glad to hear that. Thanks for your feedback.
This was tasty enough, but although I followed the instructions, it ended up as a thin soup and nothing close to the thickness of kik alicha I’ve had or made before.
You can reduce the water content or you can mash some amount of dal and let it simmer for some more time so that it thickens. I hope you give it a try again. Thanks
We really enjoyed this as a soup.. I used half veg stock and half water. Delicious!
Thank you so much for the feedback. :-)