North America → 🇰🇳 Saint Kitts and Nevis → Basseterre
Goat Water
Kittitian · medium · serves 6
prep 25 min · cook 150 min
~324 cal · 52g protein · 10g carbs · 6g fat (estimated, per serving)
🍽️
Rich brown goat stew in a bowl with bread
🇰🇳 Basseterre
Goat water is the national stew of Saint Kitts and Nevis, a weekend and celebration dish descended from the island's complex colonial and West African past. Goat is simmered long and slow with clove, thyme, and a splash of rum until deeply flavored, then thickened to a hearty brown gravy eaten with crusty bread.
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🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
Ingredients
Serves 6 —
•
2.5 lb goat meat, bone-in, cut up
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3 tbsp flour or breadfruit, for thickening
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2 onion
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5 cloves garlic
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1 tbsp thyme
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4 clove
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3 tbsp tomato paste
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1 scotch bonnet
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2 tbsp dark rum
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1 lime
Instructions
1
Season and brown the goat (or mushrooms and jackfruit) with the onion and garlic.
2
Add the thyme, clove, tomato paste, scotch bonnet, and enough water to cover.
3
Simmer very gently 2–2.5 hours until the goat is falling off the bone.
4
Stir in a flour-and-water slurry (or mashed breadfruit) to thicken into a rich gravy.
5
Finish with rum and lime and serve with crusty bread or dumplings.
Basseterre Saturday tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers — know your destination
📍
Basseterre. A Caribbean capital that slow-cooks goat water on weekends.
🗺️
Saint Kitts and Nevis. A two-island federation that simmers goat water on Saturdays.
🌍
North America. A collision of Indigenous, colonial, and immigrant tables.
The story behind this dish is up top — worth a read while the pot works.
👩🍳
Richard Moore & Kelsey Tucker
Recipes cooked, tested, and researched by the creators of Spin the Globe. How we build our recipes →
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