🥔 SIDE
Gomen (Ethiopian Collard Greens)
Chopped collard greens cooked down with onion, garlic, ginger and green chili in spiced butter, the soft, savoury greens spooned onto injera beside every wot.
Ethiopian · easy · serves 4
prep 15 min · cook 25 min
~155 cal · 6g protein · 14g carbs · 9g fat · 8g fiber · 3g sugars · 6g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Gomen is the Amharic word for collard greens, and ye'abesha gomen, Ethiopian-style greens, is one of the everyday dishes of the Ethiopian table. The greens are cut into ribbons and cooked with onion, garlic, ginger and green chili until they are soft and savoury, then spooned onto next to a meat wot or a lentil stew.
It is also one of the pillars of the fasting table. The Ethiopian Orthodox calendar asks the faithful to go without meat, dairy and eggs on many days of the year, and on those days gomen is made with oil instead of butter and served on beyaynetu, the fasting platter, with misir wot, shiro, cabbage and beetroot. On other days it is enriched with niter kibbeh, the spiced butter, and it is often cooked with a little beef or with ayib, the fresh curd cheese.
It is eaten with the hand, torn pinching up a mouthful of greens and a little of whatever sits beside it.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian and gluten-, 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
- 700 g (about 2 large bunches) collard greens, kale works too
- 3 tbsp niter kibbeh (spiced butter), on fasting days Ethiopian cooks use oil instead
- 1 large red onion, finely chopped
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 tbsp fresh ginger, finely grated
- 2 long green chilies, seeded and cut into strips
- 250 ml (1 cup) water
- 1 tsp salt, or to taste
- 1 tbsp lemon juice (optional)
Instructions
- 1Wash the greens well, strip out the thick stems and roll the leaves up tightly. Slice them into thin ribbons, then chop across.
- 2Heat the niter kibbeh or oil in a wide, heavy pot over medium heat and cook the onion for 6 to 8 minutes, until soft and golden.
- 3Add the garlic and ginger and cook for 2 minutes, until fragrant.
- 4Add the greens a handful at a time, stirring each lot until it wilts, then pour in the water and add the salt.
- 5Cover and simmer for 10 minutes, then uncover, add the green chilies and cook for 5 minutes more, stirring now and then, until the greens are tender and almost all the liquid has cooked away.✎ Chef’s noteGomen should be moist but not wet, so it sits neatly on injera without running.
- 6Taste for salt, add the lemon juice if you like, and serve warm or at room temperature with injera.
Ethiopian home tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Amhara. Ethiopian Orthodox observance is the shaping force here: somewhere between 180 and 250 days a year are fasting days on which no animal product may be eaten, and more than four fifths of the region is Orthodox. That is not an occasional constraint but the ordinary calendar, and it has produced a legume and vegetable repertoire that runs to dozens of dishes.
🗺️
Ethiopia. Ethiopia broke the Scramble for Africa at Adwa in 1896 and was never made a European colony, though Italy did occupy it from 1936 to 1941, and Liberia holds a similar claim. Its cuisine stands equally apart, built around injera, a tangy fermented teff flatbread that doubles as plate and utensil for an array of spiced stews called wat. The fiery berbere spice blend and spiced clarified butter niter kibbeh give the food its signature depth, and long fasting traditions have produced a rich vegan repertoire.
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Africa. The structure repeats across most of the continent: one starch and one sauce. A grain or root is cooked stiff, torn or rolled by hand, and used to carry a stew of leaves, groundnut, okra or fish, usually from a shared bowl and with the right hand. UNESCO listings have followed that logic, inscribing couscous in 2020 as a shared Maghreb tradition and Ivorian attieke in 2024.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Ethiopia
Misir Wot (Spiced Red Lentil Stew)Red lentils melted into a deep, chili-red stew built on berbere spice and slow-caramelized onions.
Doro WatEthiopia’s celebration dish: chicken slow-stewed in a mountain of caramelized onions and berbere, with whole eggs.
Shiro WotGround-chickpea flour whisked into a spiced, silky stew, the dish that feeds Ethiopia on fasting days and hard times alike.
Browse all Ethiopia recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Pot or saucepan.
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.
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Frequently asked questions
What is Gomen (Ethiopian Collard Greens)?
Chopped collard greens cooked down with onion, garlic, ginger and green chili in spiced butter, the soft, savoury greens spooned onto injera beside every wot.
Where does Gomen (Ethiopian Collard Greens) come from?
Gomen (Ethiopian Collard Greens) is an Ethiopian dish from Amhara, Ethiopia.
Can Gomen (Ethiopian Collard Greens) be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Gomen (Ethiopian Collard Greens) recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions. Treat the substitutions as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Gomen (Ethiopian Collard 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 still count coconut as a tree nut to be cautious, although the FDA stopped listing it as one in 2025), 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 Gomen (Ethiopian Collard Greens) take to make?
About 40 minutes total (15 minutes prep, 25 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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