34 - Chad

The Republic of Chad is a landlocked country in northern-central Africa, it is bordered by Libya, Sudan, Cameroon, Nigeria and Niger. Its official languages are Arabic and French although there are over 100 different languages spoken.

Chad was first populated in the 7th millennium BC and has been ruled by people controlling the trans-Saharan trade routes. France conquered the area in the 1920's but Chad regained its independence in the 1960's.

Chad has more than 200 distinct ethnic groups originating from all parts of Africa and they follow their own customs and beliefs. Chad is the seventh poorest country in the world with 80% of its population living below the poverty line. 

Millet is the staple food and it is used to make paste like balls to dip in various sauces. Fish is also popular. Meals are served on a large communal plate but women eat separately from men.

For our visit to Chad we made the vegetarian dish Daraba, a creamy peanut vegetable stew.

We luckily had all the ingredients at home so we didn't have to go shopping for this meal. 

We used a small butternut squash instead of pumpkin and baby spinach for the greens. The okra was frozen so we didn't cook it for as long as suggested in the recipe - we didn't want it to go slimy!

The recipe has North American measurements of cups, I always find this slightly bizarre when measuring strange shaped objects but there you go! 😁

You basically put everything in a big pot and cook it in a mixture of coconut milk, chopped tomatoes and vegetable stock.

We made steamed rice to go with it.

The dish is garnished with fried onion 

and garlic and crushed peanuts. 

The finished meal.

The Verdict.

It was delicious, it was like a really yummy spicy peanut soup. 

We had seconds.

The only improvement would be to add some more chilli, our chilli powder is very strong so I hadn't used as much as the recipe called for.