Food & Cuisine in Botswana
Botswana's location in the equatorial region has meant that its cuisine makes the most of locally available fruit and vegetables. Salads and soups feature heavily in the diet of the locals. Meat too has its place owing to the history of hunting and is made the traditional way with tomatoes and sauces.
Markets in Botswana are packed with culinary delights and an abundance of local produce to help you familiarise yourself with the cuisine in Botswana.
This Botswana Restaurants Guide gives a brief rundown on the food and cuisine of Botswana, with details about some of the most popular dishes that you may wish to sample. Don't forget to do some shopping while you're on holiday - use our Botswana Shopping Guide for hints and tips about where to shop and what to buy. You can check out information about what the local Botswana restaurants scene is like in the destinations below, as well as local suggestions about the best places to eat. We currently have food and cuisine information for:
Food & Cuisine in Botswana
Popular ingredients in recipes include seswaa or pounded meat, ugali (cornmeal), fish, rice, meat, goat, yam, beats, cabbage, fresh fruit and still more meat! Food in Botswana is usually cooked over an open wood fire though coal has grown in popularity in lower income homes in urban areas. Sorghum and millet porridge are other staples.
The swankier bars and restaurants in Botswana are mostly to be found within hotels in bigger towns and cities. Goat and beef feature frequently on menus as do sorghum and millet. If you're staying at a game lodge or a safari camp in Botswana, then your accommodations should have a bar and restaurant attached. The food in Botswana may be simpler and more basic but is typically of very high quality. Local beer is easily available and these bars are licensed so getting your evening tipple shouldn't be a problem.
National Specialities in Botswana
Botswana is known for the Kalahari truffle, the underground tuber called Morama, dried bean leaves, beans (ditloo, cow peas, letlhodi), peanuts, wild spinach or Morogo, and the more exotic Mopane worm, which can be served up deep fried or boiled.
The pounded meat dish called Chotlho or Seswaa is reserved for special events and is typically made by the menfolk by simmering meat with salt and water in a pot until it reaches a ‘melt in your mouth' consistency.
Serobe made from (among other things) the intestines of a cow, sheep or goat is another soft-cooked meat dish. Trotters of the goat or sheep may also be added in for extra flavour. Free range chicken in Botswana is favoured over the commercially produced kind and being served the traditionally grown version is a mark of respect to you, the guest. Pot cooking on open fires is known to be the best preparation style for such chicken. Another meat dish that's popular is oxtail.
Millet, maize or sorghum porridge called bogobe is made by mixing the flour with water into a soft paste and slow cooking it. The maize or sorghum may be fermented before use in some cases. If sugar and milk are added in, the dish is called ting. If the porridge is made savoury it may be served with a side of vegetable or meat for a main meal. Tophi, which is yet another variant of this staple, is made by adding cooking melons or lerotse and sour milk to the porridge.
National Drinks in Botswana
The rather strong palm wine and Kgadi, which is made from fungus or distilled sugar, are drinks of choice locally. The local beer in Botswana is called bojalwa or khadi has a mild apple cider-like flavour. Ginger beer made at home is popular too. Rooibos or bush tea (which has now made an appearance on supermarket shelves overseas as well) is a reddish caffeine-free tea. Its flavour is an acquired one but once you take to it, it can be quite refreshing.
Local Food
Since a lot of vegetables eaten here are seasonal, many are salted or dried to store away for use in later months. There are special techniques to cook these dried vegetables.
In recent years bread flour has been imported into the country and there are some Botswanian recipes which have become part of the regular diet. These include diphaphatha or flat cakes, magwinya or fat cakes and matemekwane or dumplings. Once the dough is prepared it is cooked in hot oil or over hot coals or boiled with meat.
Markets in Botswana are packed with culinary delights and an abundance of local vegetables and fruit. A visit here can help you explore the local produce as well as products imported from nearby countries in Africa. Maize and sorghum are usually grown locally as are fruit like marula and watermelons (believed to have originated in Botswana). Wild melons serve the dual purpose of being a source of food as well as water for people living in the dry desert regions of the country.
