#2 Lesotho
- Jen
- May 21, 2019
- 4 min read
Updated: Jul 4, 2022
Who? Ohhh, it’s that country that’s actually inside South Africa. The technical term is an enclave – a country that is completely surrounded by another country. My first African country and my first enclave!
Pronounced Li-soo-too, it’s also known as “the land of the people who speak Sesotho”, ”the kingdom in the sky”, ”the Switzerland of Southern Africa”…I hope this means we get fondue?
Lesotho is a small mountainous country “in” South Africa. I’m not about to copy and paste the encyclopaedia but I will share my favourite Lesotho fact: it’s the country in the world with the highest lowland (1,400m) and is the only country in the world whose entire land lies above 1,000m.
I know this is a food blog but I’m not even sorry for digressing for a moment because I am primarily a dams engineer after all. Let’s talk about Africa’s biggest water transfer scheme!!! The Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP) is a World Bank funded water transfer project to provide South Africa with water, a resource that Lesotho has in abundance and South Africa needs more of. It’s basically a network of dams and tunnels to move water between river systems. Construction is ongoing, with the second of three phases due to be completed in 2020. When completed, the dams will provide enough hydroelectric power to meet the electricity needs of the entire country. Lesotho’s power generation will be 100% self-sufficient and 100% renewable.*
*I’m congratulating myself on being so restrained in this description because it is such an interesting scheme in terms of scale, socio-economic impacts, and those dams…(insert aubergine emoji here). Google it!
Right, food!
There’s a lot of subsistence farming due to its mountainous location and as a result, the food is generally quite simple. Quite a lot of the everyday dishes are comprised of taking a seasonal fruit or vegetable and preparing it on its own: beetroot salad, boiled pumpkin, peaches, pears and so on. I’m a big fan of that: when you have great produce there’s no need to over-complicate things; let it shine on its own. It’s ex-empire so there are British influences (they’re big tea drinkers).
It seems that this is another country it would be difficult to go OTT on and I haven’t been overwhelmed by my research into the cuisine but here’s what we have:
Fondue
There is no fondue.
Pap-pap
This is the staple. It’s cornmeal porridge and is often served with a vegetable relish made from peas, beans or other veg. Most families grow corn themselves. Another popular staple is motoho, which is a fermented porridge made from a cereal grain called sorghum.
Cook the world cereal grain lesson #1: sorghum is a type of millet and is widely grown throughout Africa as it is a fairly resilient and drought-resistant crop. It’s also used quite a lot in the US and China to feed livestock. It’s the fifth most important cereal crop in the world behind corn, wheat, rice and barley.
Chakalaka
Chakalaka is a sort of vegetable/bean stew. I believe its origins are in South Africa and it’s also eaten a lot in Lesotho.
Meat
Beef is their fave and cattle are a sign of wealth. They also eat chicken, sheep, goat and freshwater fish. For most, meat is only eaten on special occasions.
Dessert
They like dessert in Lesotho, no doubt a legacy of the British Empire. One popular sweet treat is Makoenva, which is deep-fried dough balls rolled in sugar and cinnamon.
Butha-Buthe
Butha-Buthe is a spinach and tangerine soup and also the name of a town in the north of the country. This soup popped up a few times during my research. It sounds so unusual and there might be a valid reason it’s unusual, but we’ll never know unless we try and who knows when life is going to present the next acceptable opportunity to put tangerines in my soup?!
We’ll start with the soup and then move onto Lesothan chakalaka with pap-pap, partly because mohoto (the fermented porridge) sounds gross and partly because I already have a bag of cornmeal (the stuff you use for polenta) in the cupboard.
For the Butha-Buthe I cooked yellow split peas in chicken stock (after soaking in water overnight). I sautéed onion (in butter), adding turmeric and rice flour for thickening and then mixed it in with the peas in the stock. Chopped spinach, fresh parsley and coriander and the zest and juice from tangerines got thrown in and easy (split)peasy: Butha Buthe!
As noted above, this is quite an unorthodox soup by my very British standards but the warm turmeric and tangy/sweet tangerine combo was delightful. The creaminess and slight sourness of the dollop of natural yoghurt I added lifted it from being a healthy bowl of vegetable soup to a heavenly bowl of vegetable soup. I made two portions: one lumpy and one smooth. I'm not sure your average Lesothan regularly Nutri-Bullets their soup but I definitely preferred it smooth.
Inspired by a few recipes I found, I made my chakalaka by sautéing carrots for a few minutes then added chilli (don’t be a pussy with the chilli; it needs a kick), onion, peppers. I also chose to add garlic at this point because I find it hard to cook without it! The veg was cooked for a few more minutes, before adding tomatoes, seasoning and cooking down until it was sticky and relish-like.
For the pap-pap, I pretty much just made polenta, using chicken stock.
Chakalaka and pap-pap is so simple, but wow! It was so yummy! A) I forgot how much I love polenta, and b) the “stew” is wonderfully sweet. You definitely need to use fresh tomatoes rather than tinned and let it cook down for long enough to get that lovely stickiness. It’s never going to be a DP (dinner party) showstopper but I am absolutely adding this to my mid-week repertoire with some chickpeas or beans. Thank you Lesotho for bringing this nutritious and delicious gem into my life!
So, what's on the menu next time? SOUTH AFRICA.
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