Zimbabwean Food: The Dishes, the Staples and How They Are Made

Zimbabwean food is built around one staple and endless variations of what goes with it. Learn sadza and the relishes that accompany it and you understand most of the country's everyday cooking.

Sadza: the centre of the plate

Sadza is a stiff porridge made from white maize meal cooked with water. It is eaten at lunch and supper, formed into a ball by hand and used to scoop up the relish. The texture is the skill: a thin porridge first, then meal added gradually while stirring hard until it is firm and smooth.

Variations include sadza made from finger millet (rapoko) or sorghum, which are darker, more traditional and nutritionally richer, and are still preferred in many rural households.

The relishes

• Muriwo — leafy greens such as covo, rape, tsunga or pumpkin leaves, cooked with onion and tomato, sometimes finished with peanut butter (muriwo une dovi), which is a genuinely distinctive Zimbabwean touch.
• Nyama — beef, goat or chicken stewed with onion and tomato. Slow-cooked beef with a rich gravy is the classic Sunday plate.
• Road runner chicken — free-range village chicken, tougher and far more flavourful than broiler, cooked long and slow.
• Matemba and kapenta — small dried fish, fried with onion and tomato, cheap and widely loved.
• Beans, cowpeas and nyimo (bambara groundnuts) — the staple proteins in most households.
• Mopane worms (madora) — dried caterpillars, rehydrated and fried with onion and tomato. High in protein and a genuine delicacy, whatever visitors expect.

Breakfast and snacks

• Bota — a thin maize porridge, often with peanut butter, sugar or milk. The standard breakfast.
• Maputi — popped maize, sold everywhere at roadsides and outside schools.
• Roasted maize in season, cooked over coals at the side of the road.
• Freezits — frozen flavoured ice in a tube, the universal childhood treat.
• Chimodho — a dense maize-meal bread, sometimes baked with a little sugar.

Drinks

• Maheu — a thick, lightly fermented maize drink, sold commercially and made at home.
• Mahewu and traditional brews such as the sorghum beer served at ceremonies.
• Tea with milk, taken strong and sweet, is a fixture of the working day.

Fruit and wild foods

Seasonal wild fruits are part of growing up in Zimbabwe — mazhanje (wild loquat), matohwe (snot apple), nhengeni and hacha among them, sold in buckets at the roadside in season. Cultivated mangoes, avocados, guavas and bananas are abundant and cheap in season, and the Eastern Highlands produce apples, plums and berries.

How to cook sadza

1. Bring water to the boil in a heavy pot.
2. Mix a little maize meal with cold water to a smooth paste and stir it into the boiling water to make a thin porridge. Let it cook for several minutes.
3. Add maize meal steadily while stirring hard with a wooden spoon, until the mixture stiffens and pulls away from the sides.
4. Cover and let it steam on low heat, then stir again before serving.

Serve hot with relish. Sadza is eaten with the right hand; wash hands at the table before and after.

Eating out and hospitality

Restaurants in Harare and Bulawayo range from traditional-food buffets to international menus, and buffet-style traditional restaurants are the easiest introduction for visitors. In a home, expect to be offered food and expect refusal to be taken personally — accepting a little is the polite path. Visitors are usually served first and generously.

More on Zimbabwean life and travel is on our guides page and in Lifestyle.