Bobotie – hearty and comforting South African dish made primarily of curried minced meat topped with milk and egg mixture and baked to perfection. Easy, tasty dish with punchy yet on point flavors!
Let me make a shout out to one of our Facebook readers for suggesting this fabulous dish that the whole family will enjoy. It’s been on my list since last year’s holiday and finally, it’s officially on the blog now. Woohoo!
What is bobotie?
As cute as the name sounds, this dish here isn’t pure cutesy cute at all; it’s a big-time dish and is often considered to be South Africa’s national dish.
Bobotie, pronounced as BA-BOOR-TEA, appears to be a dish accounted way back to ancient Roman times (yep, imagine those thigh-high Roman sandals). It was basically layers of cooked meat with pine nuts seasoned with pepper, celery seeds, and asafoetida (a herb similar to that of leeks), then added with a top layer of egg and milk mixture.
Today, Bobotie recipes have been simplified by using curry powder and usually call for chopped onions and almonds. Traditionally, bobotie is added with dried fruits like raisins or sultanas and often garnished with walnuts, chutney, and bananas.
This dish is jam-packed with complex flavors and textures that are guaranteed to excite and satisfy your palate. Yellow rice is often quite the perfect company for this baked dish.
Bobotie is somehow associated with Meatloaf due to its similar cooking method. It starts off by sauteing the minced meat along with the spices and veggies, then finishes off in the oven.
The sauteed savory minced meat complements the custardy milky toppings well. Although not too spicy, this version of bobotie here has some kick to it. Instead of adding dried fruits, I use my mango chutney to add a hint of sweetness and a kick into it.
What is bobotie traditionally served with?
Bobotie is traditionally served with yellow rice, some would add slices of banana on the side, chutney, or some pickle. Some also serve roasted butternut squash, toasted coconut, and peas.
I had mine with some slices of carrots on the side and Yellow Rice. But no matter what you serve it with, the star of this meal will always be bobotie. You can even eat it on its own! It’s sooo damn good that you’ll forget the rest.
Make sure you have someone with you when eating this bobotie dish. Or you’ll regret eating the whole pan. Blame it on all it’s marvelous flavors! You can also serve this, too, on special occasions and holidays.
Enjoy!
How to Make a Bobotie
Pre-heat oven at 350 deg F/180 deg Celsius. In a medium bowl, mix together milk and bread to soften it. Set aside. Lightly grease a 9×13-inch baking dish, or a cast iron.
Heat up a large saucepan or large skillet over medium heat,then add butter until melted, followed by onions and garlic. Saute for about 3 minutes just until soft and fragrant. Next stir in the spices: curry powder, turmeric, ground cumin, coriander and dried herbs
Add ground beef and herbs stirring constantly to break it up, cook until beef is no longer pink or slightly brown. Remove from the stove.
Add to a bowl, followed by bread mixture ,chutney, grated apple, lemon juice and zest, and Worcestershire – add raisins here, if desired. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Add beef mixture into greased casserole dish or cast iron pan. I used a 10 inch pan. Using a spoon, press the beef mixture down. This helps keep the eggs mixture afloat and forms a nice custardy top when baked. Bake in the oven for around 40-50 minutes.
While bobotie is baking, mix together eggs, cream , milk and a ¼ teaspoon of turmeric. Take the meat out of the oven, pour the eggs mixture over the beef.
Arrange the bay leaves on top of it. Bake for another 20 minutes (start checking after 15 minutes ) or until the eggs mixture has set. Remove and let it rest for a few minutes then serve with yellow rice and vegetables.
Watch How To Make It
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Bobotie
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 medium onions , finely diced
- 1 tablespoon garlic , minced
- 2 bread slices
- ½ cup milk
- 1 1/2 tablespoons curry powder
- 1 teaspoon turmeric
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon coriander
- 2 pounds lean ground beef
- 1 1/2 tablespoon dried herbs (thyme, basil, oregano, )
- 1 large apple , grated
- ⅓ -½ cup fruit chutney
- 1/4 cup raisins (optional)
- ½ -1 lemon juice and zest
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
Savory egg Custard topping
- 3 eggs
- 5-6 bay leaves
- ½ cup cream
- ½ cup milk
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven at 350 deg F/180 deg Celsius.
- In a medium bowl, mix together milk and bread to soften it. Set aside.
- Lightly grease a 9×13-inch baking dish, or a cast iron.
- Heat up a large saucepan or large skillet over medium heat,then add butter until melted, followed by onions and garlic. Saute for about 3 minutes just until soft and fragrant.
- Next stir in the spices: curry powder, turmeric, ground cumin, coriander and dried herbs.
- Add ground beef and herbs stirring constantly to break it up, cook until beef is no longer pink or slightly brown. Remove from the stove.
- Add to a bowl, followed by bread mixture, chutney, grated apple, lemon juice and zest, and Worcestershire – add raisins here, if desired. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
- Add beef mixture into greased casserole dish or cast iron pan. I used a 10 inch pan. Using a spoon press the beef mixture down. This helps keep the eggs mixture afloat and forms a nice custardy top when baked,
- Bake in the oven for around 40-50 minutes.
- While bobotie is baking, mix together eggs, cream , milk and a ¼ teaspoon of turmeric .
- Take the meat out of the oven, pour the eggs mixture over the beef. Arrange the bay leaves on top of it .
- Bake for another 20 minutes (start checking after 15 minutes ) or until the eggs mixture has set.
- Remove and let it rest for a few minutes then serve with yellow rice and vegetables.
Tips & Notes:
- You can make the minced curry ahead of time. Let it cool down first before transferring to an airtight container and into the fridge.
- Aside from yellow rice, you can serve this bobotie with crusty bread or chapatis.
- Please keep in mind that nutritional information is a rough estimate and can vary greatly based on products used.
Nutrition Information:
Mikey says
South African cuisine has been a quiet favourite of mine for a long time, due to all the unique flavours and unusual touches to their foods. Anything that is slightly spicy will have my attention, and utilising fruit and whatnot within savoury recipes will peak my interest; I am in the “don’t knock it until you’ve tried it” camp, since some of the most favoured foods sound so weird at first.
For this recipe, I have made it more times than I can care to count. It has been funny that until this most recent (as of writing) attempt, I used banana in place of fruit chutney due to not having any on me. This most recent attempt, I had the fruit chutney but not the apples for grating – but there were a couple of bananas about to become decrepit.
This may have been one my nieces more or less sat out, with the occasional nibble; their spice tolerance is not exactly high, and what I consider merely spiced is usually too much to them (the joys of cooking for kids). My big sister is adamantly not a banana fan in any way, and even in tasting the banana through all the spices and meat, she admitted it was not too bad. The baby nephew was chowing through it, seeming interested and wanting more each time.
My goal is to get him to try 100 different cuisines before he hits year one. He just turned one year old, and the cuisine count is 15. He tried this and a copycat version of Nando’s Portuguese Rice.
There was not a lot of left-overs from memory, and this was with serving at least eight people of varying sizes. You can bet this will be one fallback, particularly due to its filling nature, and ease of using up ingredients.
Imma says
Thank you so much for your comment, Mikey. You just made my day:)
Peggy Martin says
I made this last year for All nations dinner at church .they loved it and ask me to make it again
ImmaculateBites says
Hi Peggy,
I’m so glad the recipe was a hit and that you’ve become the go-to person for this dish. It’s a testament not just to the recipe, but to your skill and love for cooking.
Thank you for sharing this delightful experience, and I’m thrilled to know that the dish has become a beloved staple at your church events. Happy cooking and even happier sharing! ️
Theresa says
Do you really bake it 2 times?
Imma says
It’s not technically two times. You add the custard topping partway through because it can burn before the rest is done. Hope that makes sense.
Theresa Regan says
Sounds good. I am making it right now and am now wondering if you cover with foil when you bake the first 40 minutes?
Imma says
It is good!:heart_eyes: If you’re worried it might dry out, you can cover it, but you don’t have to.
Terry Farrell says
Memories of Sunday dinner with my South African in laws. I love Bobotie and this recipe is the closest to what I remember. Thank you8 so much for posting it.
Imma says
Thank you so much for your feedback, yeah I am trying to bring the original recipes. Stay tuned for more pure recipes:)
Jenny says
I have never been to South Africa, so I’m not sure what this dish “should” taste like, but it was super delicious! My kids and I like to study other countries and try foods from them. When I looked up the most popular foods for South Africa, Bobotie was on many lists. I’m so glad I chose this recipe for it. It was a little time consuming to make and I was worried it would be too sweet with the chutney and apple (I left out the raisins)…but it turned out so good. Super flavorful! I’m usually not a fan of leftovers, but I ate every bite of this over the next couple of days…and I think it just got better and better! So glad we gave it a try. Thanks for the great recipe!
imma africanbites says
I’m so happy for you Jenny that you’ve finally tasted this fantastic South African dish. I’ll be digging any leftovers of this dish, too. 😉