A nutritious power-packed iftar; special soup called shorba tops the menu

Dubai: Orit Mohammad believes in marking the end of fast each day always with family and following Ethiopian Iftar traditions here in Dubai as she did back home.

“To begin with early morning, our suhour is very frugal. We have Injira bread with yoghurt, dates and fruits. Injera or Teff ( sourdough flatbread)  which is now considered a super food, is gluten free, high in iron, low on the Glycaemic index and rich in fibre. Ethiopian Muslims traditionally end their fast with just water and then immediately have this special soup called Shorba that takes whole day to cook. It is a special soup with either wheat or barley and lamb bones cooked on a slow fire for hours. It has no spices just a dash of salt and turns out like a thick oat meal porridge that is extremely nutritious with whole grain and rich in fibre,” said Mohammad who runs her own coffee roaster place in Dubai.

Mohammad who puts the cooking pot with the shorba on the stove in the morning says while the shorba is nutritious, it is countered by a host of fried foods that accompany it. “While we have such a nutritious soup we also have variety of fried and sweet stuff as oil and sugar is a staple in our iftar. We prefer to have our dessert with this shorba. This is usually fried dough dipped in honey or sugar.”

After prayers when the family sits down for the real dinner it is limited to two or three items only. “We almost always have the Injira bread with a lamb or chicken stew that also has vegetables. Our cuisine assimilates the flavours of Indian cooking as there were many who settled in East Africa and Arabic cuisine with a little African twist to it as well,” said Mohammad.

Family is very important for all Ethiopians who always like to spend maximum time with members of immediate and extended family and meal times during Ramadan are special. “I have maintained that family tradition.

Meals are special. By 4pm in the evening I begin preparing meals for iftar. Apart from the shorba, it is samosas which I try to air fry, but also have Ethiopian style bhajiya which are vegetable fritters fried in chick pea batter.

This chick pea I soak a night before, grind and add spices to make a fresh batter each day. We also have a platter of home-made sweets such as friend and honey dipped dough balls, sweet yoghurt, and of course the stew and the injira, which is all prepared fresh in the evening,” elaborated Mohammad.

 My husband Abdul Rahman, my three boys Abdulahi, 10, Wahib, 8 and Mohamamd ,6 are always present at the dinner table. I usually have my sister Ayesha Mohamamd in for iftar.  In addition, I almost always have at least 7-8 guests for iftar dinner. We have a lot of extended  family and friends and each iftar is spent memorably with a lot of laughing and talking on our family dinner table,” said Mohammad.