National Dishes of the World

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Morogo
Photo: SAplants, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

side vegan

Morogo

Wild or garden leafy greens braised with onion and tomato – the constant companion of maize porridge.

Eaten in: Botswana, Lesotho, South Africa

Prep
15 min
Cooking
20 min
Total
35 min
Servings
4

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About the dish

Morogo is the shared southern African name for edible leaves: wild amaranth, spider plant, pumpkin leaves, black nightshade or simply spinach and chard. The leaves are boiled briefly, then braised with onion, tomato and a little chilli, sometimes with groundnuts. This humble but very nourishing dish accompanies almost every meal of papa, pap or bogobe, and in the rainy season the leaves are picked straight from fields and roadsides. Any surplus is dried in the sun so there are greens in the dry season too.

Main ingredients

  • leafy greens (amaranth, spinach, pumpkin leaves)
  • onion
  • tomato
  • chilli
  • oil

Lesotho: Called moroho in Sesotho and eaten daily with papa.

South Africa: Known as imifino in isiZulu and isiXhosa.

More: Wikipedia (en)

Recipe

Morogo

https://foodmap.ominuvo.com/dish/morogo

Ingredients

4 servings

4 servings

Method

  1. Wash the leaves, remove any tough stems and chop roughly.

  2. Bring the salted water to the boil in a pot, add the leaves and cook, covered, for 5–8 minutes until wilted.

  3. In a separate pan soften the chopped onion in the oil, add the chopped tomatoes and chilli and fry for 5 minutes.

  4. Add the drained leaves, stir and cook for another 5 minutes until the liquid has evaporated.

  5. Season with salt and serve with papa or another maize porridge.

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