Kicha is an unleavened Northeast African flatbread made with a few pantry ingredients — whole wheat and all-purpose flour, and salt. Dip in stews or enjoy neat with a drizzle of honey or spiced ghee.
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This unleavened flatbread is native to Eritrea and is a daily staple here. It’s so easy to put together – it’s a combination of just flour, water and salt at its base.
Ways to customize this recipe
Once you master the basic recipe, feel free to add a few pinches or warm spices to the batter. Any of the spices or spice blends below will work well here.
- Cinammon
- cumin
- coriander
- fenugreek
- Berbere, an Ethiopian spice blend
Tips for preparing kicha
It might seem intimidating to shape the dough in the hot pan, but there are a few steps you can take to do it successfully. Once you’ve done kicha a few times, the approach will seem like second nature to you:
- Wet your fingers
- Work gently but quickly to squeeze the dough out in a circle around the warm pan
What to serve with kicha
This flatbread is endlessly versatile. You can enjoy it with yoghurt for breakfast, eat it with stewed vegetables, stew or simply as a snack with butter.
A little bit about Eritrea
Eritrea is located on the Red Sea Bay and is bordered by Sudan, Ethiopia and Djibouti. It gained independence from Ethiopia in 1993 after a 30-year war. It has nine recognized ethnic groups. The food is heavily influenced by Indian, Arabic and Ethiopian cultures.
About “In BiBi’s kitchen”
Written by Somali chef Hawa Hassan and food writer Julia Turshen, In Bibi’s Kitchen examines not only the recipes from eight African countries that touch the Indian Ocean, but also the women, communities and cultures of the region. This book is just as valuable in the kitchen as it is to be casually read page after page in the living room. She peppers the book with facts about the different countries and stories of the women who created some of the recipes. It’s the kind of cookbook you keep handy so you can refer to it often.
More bread recipes
- How to make naan
- whole wheat bread
- Bread without kneading
- Homemade rye bread
From the editors of Simply Recipes
Kicha (Eritrean flatbreads) from “In Bibi’s kitchen”
Recipe note: Recipe reprinted courtesy of In Bibi’s Kitchen by Hawa Hassan with Julia Turshen, Copyright © 2020. Published by Ten Speed Press, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC.
ingredients
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1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
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1 Cup all purpose flour
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2 teaspoon kosher salt
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1 1/2 cups warm water
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2 tablespoon rapeseed oildivided
method
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Mix flour, salt and water:
Place the whole wheat and all-purpose flours and salt in a large bowl and whisk well. Stir in the water with your hands. The batter will be like a very thick pancake batter.
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Line a plate with kitchen paper and heat a non-stick pan with oil:
Line a plate with kitchen paper and set aside. Place a 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat and add 1 tablespoon oil, tilting the pan so the oil lightly greases the bottom of the pan.
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Bake flatbread:
Once the oil is hot, add half the batter to the pan and, using wet fingertips, gently and gently press the batter into a wide circle that covers the surface of the pan.
Cover the pan and cook until the top of the batter is shiny and the bottom is golden brown, about 3 minutes. Gently turn the bread over, cover and bake an additional 2 to 3 minutes until the second side is browned.
Transfer the flatbread to the prepared platter, add the remaining 1 tablespoon oil to the pan, and repeat the process with the remaining batter.
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Serving and storing leftovers:
Serve immediately while the loaves are warm or allow to cool to room temperature. Leftover bread can be stored in a plastic bag at room temperature for a day and reheated in a pan over low heat.
| nutritional information (per serving) | |
|---|---|
| 327 | calories |
| 8g | Fat |
| 56g | carbohydrates |
| 9g | protein |
