Maize is the staple food for most tribes in Zimbabwe. People often make a maize dish called sadza, where they cook cornmeal like a thick cream of wheat and serve it with cooked greens.
The sadza is mounded high and people generally pinch off some, make a small ball, indent it with their thumb and use it to scoop up veggies. My husband, Jon, and I especially enjoy peanut butter cooked greens.
Check out how to make sadza and peanut butter greens for yourself!
Ingredients for Sadza:
- 1¼ cups white cornmeal/corn flour
- Water
Ingredients for Peanut Butter Greens
- 1 big bunch greens (e.g. spinach, kale, pumpkin leaves, swiss chard)
- 1/4 medium onion, chopped
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1/4 medium tomatoes
- 1 tablespoon peanut butter
- Chilli flakes (optional)
- 1/2 cup water
- Salt, to taste
Directions for Sadza:
1. Put 1¼ cups cornmeal in pot. Add cold water to make a paste.
2. Put pot with the paste on the stove and add 4 cups of boiling water. Stir simultaneously.
3. Keep stirring until rakukwata (it’s boiling). Cover pot, reduce heat and let it simmer for 15 minutes.
4. After 15 minutes, add more cornmeal bit by bit and mix well (or as they say in Zimbabwe, mona sadza). When it’s just about to reach a consistency where you could easily roll it into a ball and eat it by hand, cover it and let it simmer for 5 minutes. Your sadza is ready!
Directions for Peanut Butter Greens:
1. Chop greens (including the ribs), tomatoes, garlic and onions.
2. Bring water to a boil in a large pot. Add the kale, tomatoes, onion and garlic. Cover the pot with a lid and cook for 10 to 20 minutes or until the kale is tender.
3. In a small bowl mix the peanut butter with a little bit of hot water to make a sauce. When the greens are cooked, add the peanut sauce and stir constantly until the greens are coated in the peanut sauce.
4. Season to taste with salt and chilli.
5. Serve with sadza and enjoy!
If you want, you can also add meat or other veggies to make your sadza how you like it!
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