Sepedi traditional food includes meat and vegetables, with popular dishes such as thophi (maize meal and lerotse fruit), mashotja (Mopani worms), moroga wa dikgopana (spinach cooked and dried in the sun), and dikgobe (coarsely ground corn/samp and beans).
The Bapedi cook their food using a three-legged pot over an open fire, instead of cooking with gas or electricity.
Popular Sepedi Food and Drink
Below we outline some of the most popular Sepedi dishes and beverages. Read on to learn more about this yummy South African food.
Tlhotlwa
Traditional Pedi village weddings will serve Tlhotlwa, a delicious sorghum-based beer that is brewed by the elderly women in the community. This creamy beverage is served to guests in clay pots.
To prepare traditional beer, they mix different types of mabele (sorghum meal) with hot water before storing the mixture in a self-made, tree branch house located in a cold area.
The old women brew it. When it’s ready and then pour it into muddy pots before serving it to the elders. They don’t drink from regular cups but rather use traditional mokgopu cups. Traditional beer is usually only cooked and served at weddings or ancestral ceremonies for others.
Mala Mogodu
Mala Mogodu is another tasty Pedi meal. Mogodu is a dish made of chopped serobe (tripe) and mala (intestines), served as a stew with hot pap or dumpling.
At Pedi ceremonies, families serve a variety of vegetables like spinach, butternut squash, green beans, cabbage, beetroot, and potatoes with the Mogodu.
Dikgobe
Dikgobe is made up of peas, beans, and samp (processed maize) that results in a porridge-like texture. The ingredients are cooked using very little fat or oil, with only salt as seasoning.
Dikgobe is a versatile food that can be had for any meal. But it is most commonly eaten at lunch alongside meat dishes. If you want the full experience, pair dikgobe with milk.
