Copyright: South African Tourism


If you’ve never had the pleasure of visiting South Africa and tasting its diverse and eclectic cuisine, you are in for a pleasant surprise. Though it would be more desirable to experience it all first-hand, you don’t have to leave your armchair to learn about South Africa’s people and traditional foods—you can follow this culinary road map and experience it all here. NATURALLY, SINCE THIS IS A VEGAN SITE, ALL REFERENCE MADE TO MEAT ON THIS PAGE IS MERELY TO PROVIDE INSIGHT INTO THE TRADITIONAL FOODS OF SOUTH AFRICA AND THEREFORE IS NOT CONDONED BY ME.

Known as the “rainbow” nation, South Africa–with its multi-cultural diversity–is a symbiotic fusion of Asian, African and European cultures that has evolved into an indigenous cuisine. Though the country’s traditional dishes typically include meat, vegetarians visiting South Africa will have no problem finding food to suit their tastes (a proven fact, since the object of this website is to feature South African dishes that have been easily and successfully converted to vegetarian and/or vegan options). So in order to fully understand the evolution of South African cookery, we have to look to its history.

THE BEGINNING

Several centuries before the first European set foot on South African soil, local inhabitants were already enjoying the fruits of the land and sea. Known collectively as the Khoisan, these native peoples comprised the Khoekhoen (Hottentots) and adopted a pastoral lifestyle herding sheep and cattle and feasted on kaiings (crispy fried sheep-tail fat, or crackling, mixed with wild cabbage). Their kinsmen, the strandlopers (beachcombers) lived along the Cape coast close to the beach and enjoyed a diet of fish, mussels, abalone, crayfish and seals as well as roots, fruits and edible seaweed.

A Bushman Hunting Game
Copyright: South African Tourism


The San (Bushmen) were hunter-foragers and survived off the area’s abundant game. Along with buck, elephant or hippo, the San also ate veldkos (wild plants) such as mustard leaves, sorrel, wild asparagus and waterblommetjies (water flowers) found in dams and vleis (valleys) in the Boland beyond Cape Town. Today, South Africans continue to enjoy these tiny creamy white flowers in a delicious bredie (stew) that is typically, but not always, made with mutton and flavoured with sorrel.

THE AFRICAN INFLUENCE

Early African tribes planted millet and sorghum – and indeed, they still do. Millet makes a tasty traditional beer, as does sorghum (called amabele, amazimba, luvhele), which is also used to make an excellent porridge.











Zulu Men Tilling the Land to Plant Maize
Copyright: South African Tourism

It’s interesting to note that currently up to half the arable land in South Africa is planted with maize (corn), which was grown by tribes across southern Africa long before colonists arrived. In fact, many South Africans, black and white, would cheerfully go through their lives eating little else.

Africans from early times also raised cattle, but very few of these animals ended up on the open wood fires of the braai (barbeque). Instead, they hunted game and gathered insects such as termites, locusts, and especially mopane worms, which are caterpillars that live on mopane trees. Dried then fried, grilled or cooked in a stew, mopane worms were, and still are, considered a delicacy in Botswana and Zimbabwe as well as in the northern part of South Africa among the Venda, Tsonga and Pedi people.

THE AFRICAN KITCHEN

Maize (corn) has long been the basis of African cuisine. Each community, whether Xhosa or Zulu, Sotho, Tswana or Swazi, holds to slight differences in making it and preferences in eating it, but certain dishes have the approval of nearly all. Here are some of them:

• Fresh, green mielies (corn), roasted and eaten on the cob, sold by hawkers almost everywhere, usually women, who set up their braziers on the pavement.
• Dried and broken maize kernels, or samp: samp and beans, or umngqusho, is a classic African dish.
• Dried maize kernels ground fine into maize-meal or mielie-meal, used for everything from sour-milk porridge to dumplings, fine-grained mieliepap (maize porridge) to phutu or krummelpap (crumbly maize porridge).

A Traditional Xhosa Woman Weaving a Basket
Copyright: South African Tourism

One can find dishes made with amadumbe – rather like sweet potatoes – where African food is served. But the vegetables one finds most often in African homes are morogo (any green leaves, including bean and beetroot leaves), pumpkin, often sweetened or seasoned with cinnamon (a taste shared with Afrikaner cooks), and beans of all sorts.

The meat can be goat or chicken and quite often is tripe, a delicacy here as it is in France, and possibly a legacy of the Huguenots (or, as likely, the kind of meat available to people whose finances didn’t stretch to fillet steak).
















Zulu Woman Filtering Beer
Copyright: South African Tourism

THE EUROPEAN, ASIAN & INDIAN INFLUENCES

Over the next few centuries, European, Asian and Indian influences would mould South Africa’s cuisine into what it is today. By the late 1400s, Portuguese explorers had pioneered the sea route to India and during the early 1500s were regular visitors to the South African coast. Spices drew the Dutch to Java in the mid-1600s and it was this search for food that shaped the cuisine of modern South Africa. In 1652, Commander Jan van Riebeeck and a small group of approximately 90 men were instructed by the Dutch East India Company (VOC) to build a fort and establish a vegetable garden at the Cape of Good Hope (Cape Town) to benefit the Company’s merchant fleets en route to the Far East.














A Breathtaking View of Table Mountain, Cape Town
Copyright: South African Tourism

The settlers also used this opportunity to obtain in-demand commodities such as tea, coffee and spices which could not be produced at the Cape. It is significant to note that the establishment of a trading station led to a flourishing wine industry and ultimately the birth of a nation. Food-wise, the Dutch influence of pancakes, waffles and dumplings are today an indelible part of South Africa’s cuisine.

As Governor of the Cape, Jan van Riebeeck established a relationship with the Khoehoen solely for the purpose of bartering. But soon a mutual animosity developed over issues such as cattle theft. The Khoekhoen viewed the Dutch as a threat to their very existence. Perhaps the first sign that the threat was real came in 1657 when 49 settlers were released from their contracts to become vryburghers (free burghers) and were allotted land to farm. In the same year, the VOC responding to the settlers’ demand for labour, realised it was easier to import slaves from India, Madagascar, Indonesia, Malaysia and Mozambique than to keep trying to entrap the local people, mostly Khoi and San, who seemed singularly unimpressed with the Dutch and their ways.













Cape Malay Man in Bo-Kaap, Cape Town
Copyright: South African Tourism

It was as a result of the Malay slaves from Indonesia and Malaysia that possibly the best-known of all South African cooking styles—Cape Malay—developed. In the predominantly Dutch homes, Malay cooks were highly sought-after and they quickly learned to prepare traditional Dutch fare, such as melktert; however, they added their own touch by embellishing it with grated cinnamon or nutmeg.


























The Colourful Houses of the Malay Quarter in Bo-Kaap, Cape Town
Copyright: South African Tourism

The French Huguenots arrived soon after the Dutch, and between 1680 and 1690, they changed the landscape in wonderful ways with the vines they imported and their winemaking skills. Settling mostly in the Franschhoek valley, they soon discovered a need for men and women to work in their vineyards and turned to the Malay slaves (and the few Khoi and San they could lure into employment).













A Legacy of the French Huguenots–
One of hundreds of Vineyards, Franschhoek Valley
Photo: MediaClubSouthAfrica.com














A Cape Dutch Homestead and Wine Estate, Franschhoek Valley
Photo: MediaClubSouthAfrica.com

As religious refugees, the Huguenots arrived with few possessions and had to survive with the bare necessities. They also had to adapt their established winemaking techniques to the different conditions within their newly adopted country. In addition, their customs and cuisine prevail to this day and are evident in foods such as konfyt, or confiture. A felicitous transformation was taking place: the Huguenots’ influence on both the culinary and wine fronts was leaving a lasting impression on the Cape and laying the foundation for the milieu for future South Africans.

In 1795, the British took over the Cape from the Dutch. Except for a brief few years in the early 1800s when the Cape was returned to the Dutch, the British continued to rule the Cape and a large group of immigrants settled in the eastern part of the colony in the areas of Port Elizabeth and Grahamstown. They too left their imprint on South Africa’s culinary road map and foods such as cornish pasties, trifle and shepherd’s pie have assimilated into the mainstream.

By the mid-1800s, German and Portuguese settlers had also made their way to the colony and introduced their traditional foods and cooking techniques. It was becoming clear that the colonists—mainly Dutch, German and French Huguenot stock—had begun to lose their sense of identification with Europe. The Afrikaner nation was emerging. By now, the tiny refreshment post at the Cape of Good Hope had grown into an area of white settlement that encompassed all of what is today South Africa.

Some two centuries after the first Malay slaves landed at the Cape, a boatload of indentured labourers were imported from India and arrived in Durban to work in the sugar cane fields. Others followed—both Hindu and Muslim—and when their 10-year contracts were over, they stayed.











Indian Market Selling Spices, KwaZulu Natal, Durban
Copyright: South African Tourism

Indian cookery grew so popular over the decades that Zulus in Natal adopted curries as their own, although they left out the ginger. In fact, most South Africans would agree that curry and rice is now a national dish and the variety of curries, atjars, samoosas, biryanis are a delight to the South African palate.

Today, the term “rainbow” applies not only to the people but also to the food, for one finds in South Africa the most extraordinary range of cuisines. It seems that South Africa not only has the rainbow, but also the pot of gastronomic gold.

THE AFRIKAANS KITCHEN













Fruit Drying in the Sun, Western Cape
Copyright: South African Tourism

Preserves, Puddings & “Potjiekos”

South African dried fruit is as famous as its dried meat (biltong), and South African preserves are unbeatable. Claimed by everyone but probably handed down by the Afrikaners’ French forebearers, preserves, known as konfyt – probably from the French confiture – feature jewel-like pieces of watermelon rind, quince or other hard fruit, soaked in lime water, then cooked in a sugar syrup and spices, presented in syrup and eaten on their own. Steeped in a syrup seasoned with cinnamon and/or dried ginger, green fig is one of the best-known and most delicious of all South African preserves.

The Afrikaner’s traditional way with vegetables and fruit – baked pumpkin sweetened with golden syrup or honey, spiced sun-dried peaches stewed with cinnamon, cloves, allspice and sugar, or baby marrows and braised onions – all brighten a meal.

South African puddings are generally superb, and quite sweet, and combine the legacy of all its inhabitants, from English trifle to Afrikaner melktert (milk tart) and koeksisters (a pastry not unlike a doughnut that is soaked in a sweet syrup infused with cinnamon and/or ginger).

The Afrikaner kitchen is based on Dutch cuisine, with contributions from French and German immigrant communities, with a large dollop of Cape Malay, and tempered by decades of trekking.
















Traditional Afrikaner “potjiekos”
Copyright: South African Tourism

Potjiekos (literal Afrikaans translation means “pot food”), for example, says food writer and restaurateur Peter Veldsman (who invented the term), has been part of South African life since the first settlement at the Cape.

“In those days, food was cooked in an open hearth in the kitchen in a black cast-iron pot with legs so that the coals could be scraped under the pot,” he notes in Flavours of South Africa.

Later, meat, vegetables and spices piled into a three-legged iron pot and cooked for quite a long time over a fire was the perfect way for trek farmers to keep body and soul together.

When camp was made, game was stewed, or mutton, goat or old oxen; the pot, its contents protected by a heavy layer of fat, was hooked under the wagon when camp was struck, then unhooked at the next stop and put on the fire.

Biltong

South Africans have a national love of dried meat called biltong. Who first preserved excess meat from the hunt by smearing it with spices and hanging it out to dry? In this semi-arid country, the San would almost certainly have dried a portion of meat from each kill as insurance against lean times.

Black Africans have traditionally preserved extra meat by drying it in strips, a handy shape for dropping into the stew. The Dutch brought the recipe for tassal meat from the Old World, rubbing strips of meat with salt, pepper and coriander, covering them with vinegar to preserve them. They later added saltpetre to the mix, sprinkled vinegar over and hung the meat up to dry. The Voortrekkers (pioneers) made of this customary food a delicacy, using venison, beef, ostrich – whatever they could find.

In South Africa, it is unthinkable to set out on a family vacation without a supply of biltong; and watching rugby – either on television or at the grounds – is not the same without the stuff in some form, either in strips or slices.

There are many variations. Sometimes, in the old Dutch fashion, the meat is dipped in vinegar, with saltpetre and brown sugar in the mix. If it’s venison, often juniper berries and ground spices are rubbed in. The meat is hung to dry anywhere from five days to a fortnight, after which it lasts a very long time.

Braaivleis, or Braai
South Africa’s cuisine is truly multicultural, and nowhere is this more apparent than at a typical South African braai (barbeque): the domain of the Afrikaner male.
















Boerewors (Farmer’s Sausage) is the Basis for the Traditional South African Braai
Copyright: South African Tourism

Boerewors (farmer’s sausage) is another standard Afrikaner dish, the legacy of German settlers who, with largely Dutch and French immigrants, formed Afrikaner ancestry. Exceptionally fat, boerewors, an essential at any braai, is traditionally made of beef, pork, coriander and other spices. There will almost certainly be sosaties too. This is a lightly curried meat kebab, not unlike an Indonesian satay, which was brought to this country by the Malays hundreds of years ago.

And of course, no braai is complete without pap en sous, which is the staple diet of most of Africa. It’s a grits-like maize porridge, cooked to a firm consistency, and served with a relish of vegetables, usually tomato and onion at a braai, or wild spinach (merogo or imifino) in a traditional African environment.












South African Wines
Copyright: South African Tourism

All this fabulous food has to be washed down with something equally good. South Africans love their beer, and no braai is complete without it. For a truly African experience, the thick, low-alcohol, traditional African beer, brewed from maize or sorghum, is worth trying. But nothing can beat a good wine from the Cape – a notable wine-growing region for over 300 years.

Coffee & Rusks

Beskuit (rusks) – descended from the Dutch rusk, the French biscotte and the German zwieback - are far superior to any of these. They are chunks of bread made with yeast or baking powder, baked as a loaf, separated into rectangular slabs, then shoved back into the oven to dry out.
















Rusks, or beskuit, are quintessentially Afrikaans
Copyright: South African Tourism

They come in a variety of flavours – buttermilk, marmalade, aniseed, even muesli. They have a very long shelf life – useful for trekkers and farmworkers and, today, an essential with morning coffee before setting out on a game drive or facing a day at the office.

THE CAPE MALAY KITCHEN
















Cape Malay Bredie and Savoury Rice
Copyright: South African Tourism

Bredies are stews, but with a spicy Cape Malay difference. That difference was hailed by poet-physician C. Louis Leipoldt as “the free, almost heroic, use of spices and aromatic flavouring” in his book Cape Cookery, where he praised bredies as “a combination of meat and vegetables so intimately stewed that the flesh is thoroughly impregnated with the vegetable flavour while the vegetables have benefited from the meat fluids … Neither dominates but both combine to make a delectable whole that is a triumph of cooperative achievement.”

Tomato bredie, normally made with mutton, is cooked for a very long time, and its seasonings include cinnamon, cardamom, ginger and cloves as well as chilli. Imagine the Dutch burghers’ surprise when their hotpots turned into bredies overnight!

Bobotie could be described as a Malay improvement on shepherd’s pie, with a good deal of the spice cupboard mixed with the mince (ground meat). Boboties typically consist of cumin, coriander, turmeric, allspice, even chutney, almonds and sultanas as well as garlic and peppercorns – plus a masala that includes dried chillies, peppercorns, ground ginger, cloves, cinnamon sticks and cadamom pods, topped with a savoury custard instead of mashed potatoes.

Sosaties – from sesate (skewered meat) and sate (spicy sauce) – mutton chunks are marinated overnight in fried onions, chillies, garlic, curry leaves and tamarind juice, then threaded on skewers and either pan-fried or thrown on to a grill. The result is lean and gloriously tasty.

Cape Malay curries are fruity and not as spicy-hot as Indian curries. They are served with an array of sambals and atjars: hot with cool meals and cooling with super-spicy ones.

Other Malay specialities include smoorsnoek (a fish dish not unlike kedgeree) and some Indian specialities, such as rotis and samoosas, with a local twist.

Cape Malay Samoosas
Copyright: South African Tourism

TRADITIONAL CAPE MALAY SPICES

Allspice:
an essential ingredient in many Cape Malay dishes

Aniseed:
used mainly in cakes and pastries

Bay Leaves:
used mainly in dishes with an acidic flavour, such as pickled dishes, pienang curry and some bredies

Cardamom:
used whole in curries and ground for desserts and cakes













Cape Malay Vegetable Curry
Photo: Sharon Picone

Cassia:
similar to that of cinnamon and used extensively in curries

Cinnamon:
used in desserts, cakes and preserves, but is inclined to spoil curries

Chillies:
used in sambals and is an essential ingredient in masala

Cloves:
used in curries, briyanis and bredies

Coriander:
dried seeds are ground and used in curries; fresh leaves (cilantro) are chopped and used as a garnish

Cumin:
seeds are dried and used whole or ground in several curries

Curry leaves:
used fresh or dried, often together with masala

Fennel:
seeds only are used and are an essential ingredient in gharum masala












Fenugreek:
used sparingly in atjars, pickles and some curries; imparts a sweet and sharp flavour

Garlic:
used fresh only and sparingly in curries

Ginger:
indispensable in curries; also used in sweet dishes and preserves

Mustard seed:
seeds may be used whole or ground; whole seeds used for masala, pickles and atjars

Naartjie peel (Satsuma orange):
used mainly in sweet dishes; essential in koeksisters (traditional Cape Malay koeksisters are different from the plaited Afrikaner koeksisters)

Nutmeg and Mace:
used extensively in puddings, bredies and frikkadels (meatballs)

Pepper:
used whole in curries and whole and ground in bredies

Saffron:
used in briyanis; since it’s an expensive spice, it is typically only used for feasts and wedding celebrations

Tamarind:
essential ingredient for fish or crayfish curry (vinegar may be used as a substitute)

Turmeric:
adds a yellow colour to curries; used as a substitute for saffron

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