The Kombuis

South African recipes, from the braai to the baking tray. Boerewors, melktert, potjie, koeksisters and the rest of home, with ingredients you can actually find abroad.

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• Ouma Sarah’s Scones These traditional South African scones are beautifully light, tender, and buttery. They’re the perfect treat for tea time, family gatherings, or a lazy Sunday afternoon.
• Creamy Biltong Pasta Potjie Creamy pasta shells with biltong, bacon, mushrooms and melted cheddar, all cooked low and slow in a potjie over coals. Three of South Africa's greatest things in one pot. This one feeds a crowd and disappears fast.
• Banana Bread Bakery-Style Moist Banana Bread
• One Pot Broccoli Cheese Pesto Pasta Pasta and broccoli boiled together, then stirred through with melty cheddar, basil pesto and a hit of hot sauce. Creamy, cheesy, ready in 30 minutes and genuinely easy enough for a weeknight when cooking is the last thing you feel like doing.
• One Pot Cajun Ranch Chicken Pasta Pan-seared chicken with Cajun spice and peppers, tossed through bow-tie pasta in a creamy ranch and parmesan sauce. One pot, 35 minutes, barely any washing up. A good one to keep in the weeknight rotation when you don't feel like cooking anything fancy.
• Brandy and Coke Chocolate Pudding South Africa's favourite drink turned into a pudding. A rich chocolate brownie base soaked in a dark chocolate and Coca-Cola sauce spiked with brandy. Sweet, decadent and completely over the top. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.
• Roasted Vegetable Salad with Macadamia Cream Roasted pumpkin, cauliflower and broccoli piled onto a smear of macadamia nut butter, drizzled with a balsamic and raisin dressing and scattered with chopped macadamias. A proper salad with substance. Prep it the night before and it only gets better.
• Dad's Best Roast Lamb Shoulder Bone-in lamb shoulder slow-roasted for three hours in a rich tomato and vinegar glaze until it falls apart at the touch. Fork tender, deeply savoury, served in its own juices. The kind of roast that makes the whole house smell like Sunday.
• Boereboontjies Green beans, potato and onion boiled together in salted water, then mashed with a scandalous amount of butter. Three ingredients, one pot, and every South African Sunday lunch memory you've ever had.
• Butternut and Sweet Potato Soup Roasted butternut and sweet potato blended with ginger, orange juice and warming spices until silky smooth. Bright, spiced and nothing like the flat, bland versions you've had before. Top with cheesy croutons and toasted seeds and call it dinner.
• Morogo (Stewed Greens) Kale and spinach slowly stewed with onion and tomato until soft, savoury and deeply comforting. A South African staple that deserves far more attention than it gets.
• Cape Malay Vegetable Curry Potato, green beans and cauliflower in a fragrant, mildly spiced Cape Malay sauce with cream or coconut milk. One pot, big flavour, ready in under 30 minutes. Serve with roti, yellow rice and a tomato sambal.
• Bolognaise Jaffels with Cheese and Tomato Bolognaise, melted cheddar and fresh tomato sealed inside buttered bread and toasted in a jaffle iron over coals or a gas burner. A South African childhood in every bite.
• Fruitcake Trifle Fruitcake cubes soaked in sherry, layered with custard and cream and left overnight to do its thing. The easiest festive dessert you will make this Christmas, and one of the most satisfying.
• Fire-Grilled Lamb Shoulder Deboned lamb shoulder marinated overnight in a Middle Eastern yoghurt sauce with coriander, cumin, garlic and mint, then grilled low and slow over coals until charred outside and tender within. The kind of braai centrepiece that stops conversation.
• Biltong Paté Five minutes, six ingredients, zero cooking. Biltong powder stirred through sour cream, mayo and mustard with a squeeze of lemon and fresh herbs. Serve with crackers and watch it vanish.
• Ujeqe (African Steamed Bread) Soft, pillowy steamed bread made with just five pantry ingredients. No oven needed. Serve sliced with butter or tear it apart to mop up a potjie or stew. One of South Africa's most comforting breads.
• Hot Cross Bun Pudding here's more than one way to enjoy hot cross buns. Turn them into this decadent bread-and-butter style pudding with dark chocolate and orange. Perfect for Easter.
• Brandied Malva Pudding The ultimate South African comfort pudding, given extra depth with dates, nuts and brandy. Sticky, warm, soaked through with sauce. Serve with whipped cream or custard and don't hold back.
• Melktert Slices Creamy, cinnamon-dusted melktert in slice form. Light as a cloud, set in a crumb crust and finished with cinnamon sugar. Do not skip the almond essence. It's the whole point.
• Boerewors Sausage Rolls Homemade cheese pastry wrapped around thick boerewors, brushed with a smoky tomato glaze and baked until golden. Make a batch, freeze them, and
• Oxtail Potjie with Red Wine and Baby Onions Wobble in the middle, silk in the mouth. The only milk tart recipe you need.
• Durban-Style Peri-Peri Chicken Livers Chicken livers the Durban way. Flour-coated, pan-fried, then finished in a spiced peri-peri cream sauce with curry leaves, green chilli and fresh coriander. Serve with crusty rolls and don't apologise for the mess.
• Smoke-Braaied Vegetables Aubergine, red pepper, onion and baby marrow on the grid, seasoned, smoked over wood chips and finished with a Greek dressing. The braai side that steals the show.

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