Shiro Powder substitute

Substitutes for Shiro Powder with ratios

1. 2Chickpea Flour + Garlic and Ginger Only

   Close match

   Use 1 cup nech shiro for every 1 cup chickpea flour + 1 tsp garlic powder + ½ tsp ground ginger + ½ tsp salt

   The mild white version, for anyone cooking for people who cannot eat chili or making a nech shiro on purpose.

   What changes

   Best for

   nech shiro, cooking for children or anyone avoiding heat, fasting-day beyaynetu, a mild stew to sit next to a spicy one

   Toast the flour the same way. Without berbere the stew has nowhere to hide, so it lives or dies on the onion base and the fat: sweat the onions properly until they collapse, and finish with a spoon of niter kibbeh or ghee off the heat. Some cooks add a pinch of turmeric to warm the colour, which is not traditional in every household but tastes good.

2. 3Ground Roasted Yellow Split Peas (Ater Kik)

   Different taste

   Use the same amount for shiro powder, plus the same spice additions, and use about 10 percent more by volume

   Yellow split peas dry-toasted and ground fine in a spice grinder, which is the traditional base for some regional shiro and for kik-based stews.

   What changes

   Best for

   shiro wot, kik alicha style stews, when you have split peas but no chickpea flour

   Split peas are sweeter and less nutty than chickpeas and have slightly less thickening power, so the finished stew is a touch looser and reads a little sweeter and gentler than a chickpea shiro. Grind it as fine as your machine will go and sieve out the grit, or the stew will feel sandy. Toast the peas whole before grinding rather than after, which is easier and gives a better roast.

3. 4Red Lentil Flour

   Taste and texture differ

   Use the same amount for shiro powder, plus the same spice additions; cook about 5 minutes less

   Red lentils ground fine, which is the fastest-cooking of the legume flours and the easiest to grind at home.

   What changes

   Best for

   a quick weeknight shiro, shiro wot, thickening a misir-style stew

   Red lentils break down faster than any other legume, so this thickens quickly and smoothly, but it also goes further orange-pink than shiro's sandy brown and tastes distinctly sweeter with less body behind it. The stew will feel thinner in the mouth even at the same thickness on the spoon. Pull it off the heat earlier than the recipe says and let it sit, because it keeps thickening.

4. 5Fava Bean Flour (Broad Bean Flour)

   Different taste

   Use the same amount for shiro powder, plus the same spice additions

   Ground dried fava beans, sold in Middle Eastern and North African grocers and used in some regional Ethiopian shiro.

   What changes

   Best for

   shiro wot, a deeper, earthier stew, bozena shiro with meat

   Fava flour is the most robust of the options and thickens hard, so the stew comes out dense and earthy with a faint bitter note from the bean skins if the flour was not hulled. It stands up well to a heavy hand with berbere and to meat, and it is the wrong choice for a delicate nech shiro. Add liquid more generously than you would with chickpea flour.

5. 6Canned Chickpeas, Blended

   Taste and texture differ

   Use One 15 oz can, drained and blended smooth, for every ¾ cup shiro powder

   The no-flour emergency route, using whole chickpeas blitzed with the spices instead of a milled flour.

   What changes

   Best for

   when you have no legume flour at all, a rough shiro-style stew, using up a can of chickpeas

   This is the least-bad option, not a good one. Canned chickpeas are boiled rather than roasted, so you lose the nutty depth entirely, and they will not thicken by starch release the way a flour does, so you have to reduce the stew down instead. Even a good blender leaves it slightly grainy rather than silky. Blend with a little of the hot cooking liquid, then simmer longer than you would a flour-based shiro.