Canjeero
The actual Somali breakfast - a fermented pancake, spongy and holed and mildly tangy, which is essentially a sourdough crepe. I ate breakfast in Mogadishu (don't ask why I have been there) and this is the one that matters: it's what Somalis eat in the morning, daily, the way injera is eaten in Ethiopia. Everybody's list of Somali food leads with sambuus. The list is wrong.
The actual Somali breakfast - a fermented pancake, spongy and holed and mildly tangy, which is essentially a sourdough crepe. I ate breakfast in Mogadishu (don’t ask why I have been there) and this is the one that matters: it’s what Somalis eat in the morning, daily, the way injera is eaten in Ethiopia. Everybody’s list of Somali food leads with sambuus. The list is wrong.
Ingredients
- 150 g sorghum flour (the preferred flour for laxoox)
- 100 g white cornmeal or corn flour
- 100 g all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp instant yeast
- 1/2 tsp salt
About 700 ml WARM water
- Optional but better
- A few tablespoons of batter saved from a previous batch - the traditional starter. It gives a better, more sour result than yeast alone.
Directions
- Whisk the flours, yeast and salt together, then whisk in the warm water to a thin, smooth, pourable batter - thinner than pancake batter, about the consistency of heavy cream.
- Cover and ferment in a warm place for 8-12 hours. Overnight is best. It’s ready when it’s bubbly with a mild sour aroma. Do not rush this - the holes and the tang are the entire point of the bread.
- Stir gently and add salt if it needs it. If it has thickened, loosen with a little warm water.
- Non-stick or well-seasoned pan over medium, ungreased or barely greased. Pour about 80 ml into the centre and swirl outward in a spiral.
- Cook ONE SIDE ONLY, about 1.5-2 minutes - until the top is set, dry, and covered in fine holes. DO NOT FLIP. The holed top surface is the finished face.
- Stack under a towel as you go.
- Serve hot with subag (Somali ghee) and a spoon of sugar or honey - that’s the everyday version. Or roll it around suqaar (diced stir-fried meat).
Notes
The name
Canjeero in the south, including Mogadishu. Laxoox or lahoh elsewhere. The c is silent. Eaten across Somalia, Djibouti, Yemen, and parts of Ethiopia and Kenya.
It is NOT injera
Related, and distinctly different:
| Canjeero | Injera | |
|---|---|---|
| Size | Smaller | Larger |
| Thickness | Thinner and softer | Thicker, spongier |
| Ferment | ~1 day | Usually a couple of days |
| Sourness | Less sour | More sour |
| Grain | Sorghum, corn, wheat | Teff |
A cousin - fermented briefly, milder, and eaten as a personal-sized pancake rather than a shared tablecloth.
How it’s actually eaten
For breakfast with subag (ghee) and sugar or honey; or with sesame oil; or savoury with beer (liver and onions), suqaar (diced stir-fried meat), or odkac/muqmad (dried preserved meat). Tea alongside. The sweet ghee-and-sugar version is the everyday one.
Why it leads
Sambuus and sabaayad are real and eaten. But canjeero is the staple, and almost every English-language list of Somali food omits it in favour of the samosa, because the samosa is the one that looks familiar. See Sabaayad.