Recipe
🥙 LUNCH
Fah-Fah
A fiery, aromatic goat and vegetable soup brightened with green chili and lime, Djibouti's favorite restorative lunch.
Djiboutian · medium · serves 4
prep 20 min · cook 75 min
~737 cal · 61g protein · 34g carbs · 39g fat · 6g fiber · 7g sugars · 17g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Fah-fah, also called skudahkharis soup in some homes, is Djibouti's favourite spicy meat soup, a dish shared across the Horn of Africa but claimed with particular pride in Djibouti City. Chunks of goat or lamb are simmered on the bone until meltingly tender, throwing off a rich broth that carries the whole dish.
Into that broth go potato, carrot, and cabbage, and a bright green heat from fresh chili, all seasoned with the warm Horn spice blend of cumin, coriander, and . It is finished with a generous squeeze of lime, which cuts the richness and lifts everything, and torn pieces of lahoh or flatbread are dropped in to soak up the soup. Hearty and enlivening at once, fah-fah is the dish Djiboutians turn to for comfort and for cure.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally gluten-, dairy-, egg-, nut- 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
2 lb goat or lamb, on the bone, in pieces
3 potatoes, chunked
2 carrots, sliced
1/4 head cabbage, shredded
2 tomato, chopped
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 green chilies
1 tbsp cumin, coriander, and
1 lime, juiced
a handful fresh cilantro, chopped (to finish)
Instructions
1
Simmer the meat with the onion, garlic, half the spices, and plenty of water until very tender, about 1 hour, skimming as needed.
2
Add the tomato, potato, carrot, cabbage, chilies, and the rest of the spices.
3
Cook until the vegetables are soft and the broth is rich, about 20 minutes.
✎ Chef’s note
Keep the green chili whole if you want its perfume without full heat, or chop it in for real fire.
4
Season with salt and finish with the lime juice off the heat.
5
Serve very hot, scattered with fresh cilantro, with lahoh or flatbread torn into the bowl.
Djiboutian home cooking.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Djibouti City. Djibouti City is a Red Sea port scented with cardamom and cumin, where skudahkharis simmers rice with goat and warm spice. Its cooking bridges Somali, Afar, Yemeni, and French habits, in flatbreads, samosas, and strong spiced tea.
🗺️
Djibouti. This is a port before it is a country: a small territory on the strait where the Red Sea meets the Gulf of Aden, with almost no farmland and a great deal of traffic. That is why the pantry is a trader's one, rice, spice and dates arriving by ship, and why Yemeni, Somali, Afar and French habits sit on the same table without merging.
🌍
Africa. Much of what reads as timeless African cooking is younger than the Atlantic crossings. Maize, cassava, groundnut, chilli and tomato all arrived from the Americas after 1500 and pushed older crops aside; millet, sorghum, teff, yam and fonio are the ones that were already here, and the map still shows the join.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Djibouti
SkoudehkarisDjibouti's national dish: spiced rice cooked with lamb, tomato, and cardamom in one pot.
LahohA soft, honeycombed fermented pancake eaten with ghee and honey or a spicy stew in Djibouti.
Djiboutian Banana FrittersLight little fritters of mashed ripe banana and flour scented with nutmeg, fried and dusted with sugar, a Djibouti favourite.
Browse all Djibouti recipes →
Good to know
Storing it: Soup keeps 3 to 4 days refrigerated and freezes well. Reheat gently and loosen with a little water or stock if needed.
Make it a Djibouti meal
Shaah bil CaanoDrink
Djiboutian Banana FrittersDessert
SkoudehkarisDinner
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Frequently asked questions
What is Fah-Fah?
A fiery, aromatic goat and vegetable soup brightened with green chili and lime, Djibouti's favorite restorative lunch.
Where does Fah-Fah come from?
Fah-Fah is a Djiboutian dish from Djibouti City, Djibouti.
Can Fah-Fah be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Fah-Fah 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 Fah-Fah 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 Fah-Fah take to make?
About 95 minutes total (20 minutes prep, 75 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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