Ye-qey sir selataBeetroot and potato salad
Fasting-day platters at Addis Ababa restaurants and church feasts often carry a bright magenta heap of this cold salad beside the hot wats: boiled beetroot, potato and carrot tossed with lemon juice, thin red onion, green chilli and a little oil. It is sharp, sweet and cooling, a palate-cleanser between spoonfuls of berbere-red lentils. It differs from key sir alicha, the warm beetroot stew, in that everything is boiled whole, cooled and dressed raw. The usual slip is dressing the vegetables while hot, which turns the potatoes pink and mushy; let them cool first. Chef's tip: dress the onion and chilli in the lemon juice and salt ten minutes ahead so they soften and lose their sharp bite.










