This is a simple recipe for a Mongolian style meat soup. I say meat as this recipe can be used with beef or mutton. The first thing to understand is that Mongols do not eat baby animals so no lamb or veal, always beef or mutton. The second thing to realise is that Mongols do not eat “red” meat. That is, meat needs to be cooked through, so no rare, medium rare or such. Everything is cooked to well done.

On to the soup. As far as ingredients go, this is fairly simple and will feed two folks quite nicely. You should have:

• 200-300 grams of meat sliced
• 2 potatoes – peeled and julienned – or sliced into thin sticks
• 2 carrots – peeled and julienned – or sliced into think sticks
• one onion (brown, white or red) – halved and sliced in thin slices
• 500ml of beef or mutton stock (if no mutton stock, just use beef stock)

Take the stock and bring to the boil. Add the meat, potatoes, carrots and onions. Simmer for about 5 to 10 minutes until everything is cooked well through. Serve in a bowl and eat with a good heavy German seed bread. Lovely!