Injera substitutes

Ready-made injera from an Ethiopian restaurant, market or grocer, sold in stacks and often frozen.

Best for

any Ethiopian meal, serving guests, keeping a supply in the freezer

The honest first answer, because real injera needs a fermented starter and days of time. Most Ethiopian restaurants will sell you a stack even if you are not eating in, and many African shops carry it frozen. Warm it briefly in a covered pan or a low oven, keeping it wrapped - injera dries out and cracks within minutes of being uncovered.

About 1 cup teff flour, ½ cup all-purpose or sorghum flour, 1 ½ cups water, 2 tablespoons sourdough starter or 1 teaspoon lemon juice, ½ teaspoon baking powder and ¼ teaspoon salt, rested 1-2 hours, then cooked on one side in a dry non-stick pan.

Best for

cooking tonight, wat and tibs, learning the technique

The best same-day approximation. You get the right dark colour, a spongy crumb, some holes and a mild tang. What you cannot shortcut is the depth of a proper three-day ferment, so it tastes gently sour rather than properly, pleasantly funky, and the eyes are fewer and larger. Pour the batter in a spiral from the outside in, cover for a minute, and never flip it.

Thin crepes made from sourdough starter discard thinned with water, cooked large and pale.

Best for

getting the sourness, scooping stews, using up starter discard

This nails the one thing most substitutes miss - the sour counterpoint that cuts through rich berbere stews. What it does not give you is the sponge: crepes are smooth, thin and slightly rubbery, with no holes to trap sauce, so the stews sit on top rather than soaking in. Make them larger and thicker than a dessert crepe and do not sweeten the batter.

Somali canjeero (also called lahoh), or any thin fermented pancake-style bread from the region.

Best for

Horn of Africa meals, breakfast dishes, scooping stews

A genuine close cousin rather than an imitation: fermented batter, cooked on one side, holey and mildly sour. It is usually smaller, softer and made with wheat or sorghum rather than teff, so it tastes milder and paler and tears more easily under a heavy stew. If your local shop has it, this is the best non-injera option there is.

Unsweetened pancakes made thin, with buttermilk for tang and buckwheat for colour and earthiness.

Best for

households with children, improvising with cupboard ingredients

Spongy and holey in roughly the right way, and buttermilk gives a faint sourness. The problems are thickness and sweetness: pancakes are much thicker than injera and most batters lean sweet, so leave out any sugar entirely and spread the batter thinner than feels right. Cut them into squares rather than serving them whole.

Any soft flatbread used as a scoop, or plain rice served under the stews.

Best for

weeknight meals, when nothing else is available, large gatherings

Not an imitation, a different way to eat the same food - and one that Ethiopian households abroad use regularly. Flatbread and lavash scoop well but are dry and neutral, so the meal loses its sour counterpoint; put a lemon wedge or a small bowl of plain yogurt on the table to replace that acidity. Rice takes the sauce beautifully and is eaten with a fork rather than by hand, which changes the meal more than the taste.