Deciphering Recipes

>One of the most fun things about eating at a restaurant is trying to figure out how to make some of the dishes. For the past year or two I have been going to the Ethiopian restaurant on State Street, Baraka. They serve stews with potatoes, lentils, chicken, carrots, and beef. I usually get the combination platter that has a stew with chicken, carrots, and a savory red sauce and a stew with lentils, potatoes, and a spicy brown sauce. I am not a very big fan of the Ethiopian sour bread so I usually get my stews over rice. But the showcase reason I keep returning to Baraka (even their lunch cart on Library Mall!) is the cold lentil salad that comes with entrees on the lunch menu. Dinner entrees come with a generic dinner salad so whenever I go I always ask to substitute the salad for the lentils!

I have been trying to figure out what is in the lentil salad for quite a while and recently got some help from one of the servers who gave up some of the secrets. It is made with brown lentils that are not cooked to mush (which is like a lot), chopped onions, chopped green peppers, and is marinated in olive oil and apple cider vinegar. The only thing missing are the spices. I have decided it is probably salt, pepper, lemon juice, garlic (a lot of it!), and cumin.

I just purchased all of the ingredients and am looking forward to figuring out if my recipe tastes like the original Buraka salad! If you’ve had the Buraka lentil salad and have suggestions for my recipe let me know!