COPPERMoroho recipe
The everyday Lesotho plate: foraged or garden leaves stewed with onion and tomato, eaten against a mound of maize meal stiff enough to stand on a spoon.
Ingredients
- 500 g leafy greens
- 400 g maize meal
- 1 onion
- 2 tomatoes
- 2 tbsp oil
- 1 tsp salt
- 1000 ml water
How to make Moroho
- Bring 1 litre of water to the boil with 1 teaspoon of salt.
- Rain in 400 g of maize meal in a thin stream, beating hard so no lumps form; the mass should pull away from the spoon.
- Cover, turn the heat right down and let the papa steam for 30 to 40 minutes, beating it twice; it is ready when a spoonful holds its shape.
- Meanwhile heat 2 tablespoons of oil and fry 1 chopped onion for 5 minutes.
- Add 2 chopped tomatoes and cook 5 minutes until saucy.
- Add 500 g of chopped greens, salt them, cover and cook 15 minutes until tender, adding a splash of water only if the pan dries; in Lesotho these are amaranth, pumpkin leaves or rape rather than spinach.
- Serve a mound of papa with the moroho beside it, and add meat, tinned fish or an egg if you have it.
What is Moroho?
Moroho is a traditional dish from Lesotho, cooked in a pan, and takes about 50 minutes from start to finish. It is built around leafy greens and maize meal. The recipe below uses 7 ingredients and is written out step by step.
How long does Moroho take?
At 50 minutes it is quicker than 83% of the 586 dishes in Copper's atlas. Copper's atlas has 3 dishes built on leafy greens. The method runs to 7 steps, the longest being 40 minutes.
Any tips for making Moroho?
Rain the maize meal into the boiling water in a thin stream while beating hard so no lumps form, then let the papa steam covered.
How Moroho compares
Leafy greens appears in only 2 other dishes in the atlas.
Cooked with the same thing elsewhere
Other traditional dishes built on leafy greens, from other countries.
Copper documents Lesotho alongside 197 other countries. Every recipe is free to read, with the full ingredient list and every step.