Botswana: Seswaa, Pap and Morogo

Botswana is a country in southern Africa that has had a huge rise in wealth over the last 60 years due to the diamond and tourism industries. In 1966, Botswana was very poor and had only 7 total miles of paved road- and now, the wealth per capita has increased over 100-fold and it is one of the top diamond producing countries in the world.

When searching for a recipe to make, it was really hard to find any dishes that didn’t use only indigenous ingredients (like worms), but I did end up finding something to make! I landed on Botswana’s national dish, called seswaa, served with pap and morogo. All three dishes were really easy to make and used no more than 5 ingredients!

Seswaa is a meat dish, usually made with beef or goat (I used beef) that’s slow cooked with onions and broth, and then mashed into a pulled pork type consistency This is usually served over pap, which is basically a cornmeal polenta. I loved the combination of the yummy, savory meat with the creamy, sweet(ish) and slightly grainy pap!

Morogo is a dish made with multiple types of greens that are indigenous to Africa, but since none of these greens are available locally, I used collard greens, which I think turned out really well! The collards were cooked with tomato and onion and were really savory.

I really enjoyed this meal, and it actually reminded me a lot of foods I ate growing up in the south- the pap was really similar to grits, and the morogo, especially when eaten with a bite of seswaa, reminded me of your typical southern collard greens, minus the vinegar.