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Alicha Wot

A mild Ethiopian beef stew made with onions, garlic, ginger, berbere spice, tomato paste, and beef simmered in broth.

From the Wikibooks Cookbook · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Turmeric and cumin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,698 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Alicha Wot

Total1 hr

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Heat the olive oil in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium heat.

  2. Add the chopped onions to the pot and sauté until they become translucent and slightly browned.

  3. Add the minced garlic and grated ginger to the pot and sauté for an additional minute until fragrant.

  4. Stir in the berbere spice blend, tomato paste, ground turmeric, ground cumin, ground coriander, salt, and black pepper, and mix well to combine the spices with the onions, garlic, and ginger.

  5. Add the beef to the pot and stir to coat it with the spice mixture.

  6. Cook the beef for a few minutes until it is browned on all sides.

Simmer

  1. Pour in the beef broth or water, ensuring that the beef is fully submerged in the liquid.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  3. Reduce the heat to low, cover the pot, and simmer for about 1 hour, or until the beef is tender and the flavors have melded together.

  4. Stir occasionally and add more liquid if needed to maintain the desired consistency.

  5. Taste the stew and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper if needed.

Finish and serve

  1. Remove the pot from the heat and let rest for a few minutes before serving.

  2. Garnish with fresh chopped cilantro or parsley.

  3. Serve hot with injera or bread, and enjoy the mild yet flavorful experience of this Ethiopian stew.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

473Calories
30 gProtein
30 gFat
22 gCarbs

Counts 13 of 15 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 13 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Beef100g cooked250
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Turmeric1 tsp ground (3g)9
Cumin1 tsp ground (2.1g)8
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Garlic1 clove (3g)4
Ginger1 tsp grated fresh (2g)2
Cilantro1 tbsp chopped fresh (1g)1
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Coriandernot in our table0
Waternot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Wikibooks Cookbook.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Turmeric + cumintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,698 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Ginger + turmerictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,776 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  5. Olive + tomatotop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,539 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Beef
Becomes tender through long, gentle simmering, and its fats and juices add richness to the stew.
Onions
Soften and sweeten as they cook, forming the body and base flavor of the stew.
Berbere spice blend
Supplies the signature warm, chili-based heat and aroma that defines the dish.
Beef broth
Provides the cooking liquid that tenderizes the beef and carries the spices through the stew.
Tomato paste
Adds concentrated acidity and savory depth, and helps thicken the sauce.
Olive oil
Carries the spices' fat-soluble aromas and helps onions brown in the pot.

The step that matters

Browning the onions and the beef. Cooking onions until golden and searing beef until browned on all sides builds deep flavor through the Maillard reaction. Pale, steamed ingredients produce a flatter, less savory stew.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (olive, clove, garlic, ginger, tomato, turmeric, cumin):

  1. Eggplantfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against olive, clove, garlic, ginger, tomato, turmeric, cumin. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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