🇪🇹 Ethiopian · Beef & Lamb Dishes

🍖 Ethiopian Beef Tendons Stew

ጅማት ወጥ — Jimat Wat

Ethiopian Jimat Wat — beef tendons slow-cooked for 2.5 hours in a berbere-kibbeh sauce until the collagen converts completely to a rich, sticky, deeply gelatinous stew. The whole-animal dish that produces the most extraordinarily textured sauce in Ethiopian cooking.

★ 4.6 (1654 reviews)
170 minTotal time
20 minPrep
150 minCook
6Servings
280Calories
MediumDifficulty

Jimat Wat requires patience — 2.5 hours of simmering converts the tough tendon collagen completely to gelatin, producing a stew so rich and sticky it coats the injera magnificently. It is the dish of those who know their Ethiopian cooking deeply.

Ingredients

Equipment: Heavy pot or pressure cooker

  • 600g beef tendons — cleaned, cut into sections
  • 2 onions — diced
  • 2 tbsp kibbeh
  • 3 tbsp berbere
  • 4 garlic cloves
  • 1 tbsp ginger
  • 1 cup water
  • 2 tsp salt

Method

  1. Blanch tendons 5 minutes. Drain and rinse.
  2. Dry caramelise onions — 15 minutes.
  3. Add kibbeh and berbere. Toast 3 minutes.
  4. Add garlic, ginger, and tendons.
  5. Add water. Simmer covered on lowest heat 2—2.5 hours.
  6. The sauce will become deeply gelatinous and thick.
  7. Pressure cooker: 45 minutes reduces cooking time dramatically.

Chef Tips

  • Patience is the entire recipe — the tendons need 2.5 hours.
  • Pressure cooker dramatically reduces cooking time.
  • The stickiness of the sauce is the quality indicator.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

  • Insufficient cooking time.

The Science

Tendons are almost pure collagen — over 90% protein, with minimal fat and no muscle fibre. At 90°C over extended cooking time, the collagen triple-helix structure uncoils into gelatin chains, producing the characteristically thick, sticky, adhesive sauce.

Nutrition (per serving)

280Calories
28gProtein
8gCarbs
16gFat
2gFiber
580mgSodium

Health Benefits

  • Exceptionally high in collagen.
  • Gelatin supports joint health.
  • High protein.

Cultural Note

Jimat Wat is the dish of the dedicated Ethiopian cook — hours of patience producing a sauce of extraordinary texture. Those who know it, love it deeply.

Storage & Serving

Storage: Refrigerate 5 days.

Reheating: Gently — reheat fully.

Serve with: Injera (ETH001), On its own with injera

gluten-freedairy-freenut-freehalal

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