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Vegan Bobotie
Bobotie is a traditional South African, Cape Malay dish. It has a proud history in my country and most every household will have an heirloom recipe for this favorite tucked into a cupboard somewhere in their house. Haha, really.
The traditional version is made with beef mince and loads of dairy (milk and eggs). Years ago, when I first became a vegetarian, I adapted a recipe from The South African CookBook ( a book that you’ll also find in many South African homes. ❤️🤗). The recipe worked well with lentils as a substitute for mince. However, turning this sumptuous, special occasion dish into a vegan delight, was more challenging.
I decided to experiment with vegan options and see how the dish turned out, and WoW, it was fabulous. Haha, I didn’t tell my family members that I’d used vegan substitutes for the milk and eggs in this dish, and, honestly, THEY DIDN'T KNOW THE DIFFERENCE…haha, haha, hahaaaaaaaa! (Funny how some people can be dead set against something on principle, before they’ve even tried it - I did tell them when they’d finished dinner and they were rather sheepish and admitted that the dish turned out very well 😂)
The ingredient list for Bobotie is rather long, and I don’t usually go for multi-ingredient recipes, but this dish is really worth making and the method is not complex, although the baking does take time. The combination of flavours, nuts, raisins and chilli elevate this dish into an offering that you can serve on special occasion holidays - think Easter or Christmas - to give the vegan members of your family (friends) the opportunity of a really tasty feast.
Ingredients
_ 1 cup of brown lentils
_ 1 1 inch slice of 🍞 bread
_ 1 cup of almond milk 🥛
_ 6 tablespoons of Aquafaba (chickpea cooking water)
_ 1 onion 🧅
_ ½ chilli 🌶
_ 1 ½ tablespoons chutney
_ 1 tablespoon marmalade
_ 1 vegan stock cube
_ 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce or Marmite (Make sure the Worcestershire sauce is vegan - no anchovies or fish sauce)
_ 50g blanched almonds nuts
_ 50g raisins or sultanas
_ Juice and rind of 1 lemon
_ Vegetable oil for sautéing
Spices
_ 1 teaspoon mixed mustard seeds
_ 1 teaspoon jeera seeds
_ 1 teaspoon crushed chilli
_ 1 teaspoon garlic powder
_ 1 tablespoon masala mix
_ 1 teaspoon turmeric
_ salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method
Cook the brown lentils in water until soft.
Tear up the bread and soak in the almond milk. Squeeze out the liquid and reserve both the bread and milk.
Mix 6 tablespoons of Aquafaba into the almond milk, beat with a fork until combined. Reserve
Chop the nuts into chunky pieces
Dice the onions and the chili. Grate the lemon rind. Juice the lemon
Sauté the onions and chilli for 2 minutes. Add all the spices to the pan and sauté until the spices are fragrant and the onion translucent. Add the stock cube and stir it in until combined.
Add the lentils, soaked bread, chutney, marmalade, lemon juice, nuts, raisins and Worcestershire sauce to the pan. Stir to combine, making sure that the bread is well integrated.
Grease a baking dish and pack the lentil mixture into it. Pour the almond milk mixture over the lentils. Sprinkle with lemon rind.
Bake at 180 degrees Celsius for 40 minutes or until the topping is well browned and golden.
Serve with yellow rice ( add 1 teaspoon to the cooking water of the rice to make yellow rice.) and extra chutney.
All images and videos are my own, shot with my iPad and manipulated using PicCollage and Video Shop
Recipe developed by me