Soupe Djiboutienne - Olympic Food Challenge : Djibouti

Just when I thought it was all over, they pulled me back in... It seems that not all the countries allocated to the various bloggers as part of the Olympic Food Challenge got completed, so there were some going spare.  I put my name in the hat and got two further countries to have a crack at.  The first is Djibouti and because this is a soup blog, I'm making a soup! (Well, I say soup, but this dish is more stew than soup.  It's delicious whatever you want to call it though)

Djibouti (and every time I type that I'm thinking 'shake djibouti' for some reason) sent 5 athletes to compete at London 2012, but sadly failed to win any medals to add to their grand total of 1 Bronze, won in Seoul in 1988.

A lot like the soup I made for Tajikistan, this is a no-frills affair.  No spices, no frying of ingredients or browning meat, not even any stock, just throw everything in the pan and cook it for ages.  When I find a recipe like this, I'm always caught between following the recipe as is, or adding, changing and generally tinkering, but when it came to the Olympic Food Challenge, I decided to try to keep as much as possible to the original recipes, as adding too much myself seemed to be going against the spirit of the thing.

Ingredients
500g Goat Meat
1 Large Potato
2 Onions
1/2 Leek
50g Cavolo Nero Cabbage
2 Tomatoes
3 Garlic Cloves
1 Chili
Fresh Coriander

Method
1. Cube the goat meat and potatoes, thinly slice the onion and put in a large pan.

2.  Cover with water (about 700ml) and add 1tsp of salt.  bring the pan to the boil, cover and simmer over a medium heat for 1 hour.  Skim off the stuff that gathers on the top of the soup regularly and check to make sure the pan doesn't get too dry

3.  Slice the leek, chop the tomato and chili, shred the cabbage and add to the pan, along with the crushed garlic cloves and a handful of chopped coriander.

4.  Add another 500ml of water and simmer for another 30 minutes, until all the vegetables are cooked through.  Adjust seasoning to taste and serve.

5.  Garnish with more coriander and serve with flat bread.  Enjoy!