Recipe
🥙 LUNCH
Hamli (Eritrean Spiced Greens)
Collard greens or chard wilted with onion, garlic, ginger and gentle spices, the everyday greens of the Eritrean platter.
Eritrean · easy · serves 4
prep 10 min · cook 25 min
~82 cal · 5g protein · 14g carbs · 1g fat · 7g fiber · 3g sugars · 0g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Hamli is Eritrea's everyday greens dish, collards, chard or spinach cooked down with onion, garlic, ginger and warm spices until soft and savoury. It sits on the shared platter as a cool, mild counterpoint to fiery stews like zigni.
During the many fasting days of the Eritrean Orthodox calendar it is cooked with oil rather than spiced butter, which is why it is so often naturally vegan. Its simplicity belies how much flavour is coaxed from a handful of ingredients.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian, vegan and gluten-, dairy-, nut-, egg- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 4
600 g collard greens or chard, chopped
1 large onion, finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp fresh ginger, grated
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp chili flakes
3 tbsp olive oil
1/2 lemon, juiced
to taste salt
Instructions
1
Cook the onion slowly in the oil until soft and translucent, about 8 minutes.
2
Stir in the garlic, ginger, cumin, turmeric and chili flakes and cook 1 to 2 minutes until fragrant.
3
Add the greens in batches with a splash of water, cover, and simmer 15 to 20 minutes until tender.
✎ Chef’s note
Add the greens in handfuls, letting each wilt before the next, so they all fit and cook evenly.
4
Season with salt, brighten with the lemon juice, and serve with injera or rice.
Eritrean highland fasting-day cooking, Asmara.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Asmara. Asmara sits high on the Eritrean plateau, eating berbere-red stews scooped with injera in the shared style of the Horn. Italian colonial rule left pasta and espresso alongside zigni beef stew and spiced clarified butter.
🗺️
Eritrea. Eritrean injera is often called taita and is frequently made with sorghum or barley as well as teff, which shifts both colour and flavour. Zigni is the beef stew that anchors a platter, and berbere does the same work here as across the border. The two cuisines really do mirror each other, which is a shared history rather than a borrowing.
🌍
Africa. Africa's fifty-four nations hold cuisines as different as Morocco's slow-cooked tagines and South Africa's open-fire braai, yet shared threads run through them: ancient grains like millet, sorghum, and teff; stews thickened with groundnut, okra, or palm; and fiery condiments from Tunisian harissa to Ethiopian berbere. Staple starches, fufu, injera, ugali, couscous, anchor communal meals often eaten by hand from a shared dish, where hospitality is a point of honor.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Eritrea
ZigniA fiery Eritrean beef stew built on berbere spice and long-cooked onions, eaten with injera.
Pasta al Sugo e BerbereSpaghetti tossed in silsi, the Eritrean tomato sauce spiked with berbere, the everyday pasta of Asmara.
TibsiCubes of beef seared hard with onion, green chili and berbere until the edges brown, an Eritrean celebration dish eaten with injera.
Browse all Eritrea recipes →
Good to know
Storing it: Stews and braises keep 3 to 4 days refrigerated and often taste better the next day. Reheat gently, adding a splash of water if it has thickened.
Make it a Eritrea meal
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Frequently asked questions
What is Hamli (Eritrean Spiced Greens)?
Collard greens or chard wilted with onion, garlic, ginger and gentle spices, the everyday greens of the Eritrean platter.
Where does Hamli (Eritrean Spiced Greens) come from?
Hamli (Eritrean Spiced Greens) is a Eritrean dish from Asmara, Eritrea.
Can Hamli (Eritrean Spiced Greens) be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Hamli (Eritrean Spiced Greens) recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Hamli (Eritrean Spiced Greens) safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Hamli (Eritrean Spiced Greens) take to make?
About 35 minutes total (10 minutes prep, 25 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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