Pick Your Grain

In her first column for Taste, Mogau Seshoene, of The Lazy Makoti fame, uses sorghum to create a seven-colours-inspired bowl with her favourite veggies

- Mogau Seshoene

Few smells are as familiar to me as that of sorghum – a distinctive sour aroma that seemed to fill the entire room as my grandmother opened the Tupperware container in which it had been fermenting. And for me, nothing offers more proof that food is truly a vehicle for emotion and memories.

The smell of sorghum always conjures up the image of my Koko – who has since passed – aged but still regal, stirring away at the coal stove to make our favourite breakfast of all: sorghum porridge. My cousins and I ate this warm bowl of comfort every day when we were at her house. With a little Nespray powdered milk and brown sugar, we still swear that no one makes it like our Koko did.

Sorghum, a resilient ancient grain indigenous to Africa, has sustained nations for generations. It is also commonly used to make umqombothi, the traditional African beer popular at social gatherings. Few other grains have the potential of this humble superfood (also called mabele in most of South Africa). It can be cooked and added to salads, or enjoyed with a gravy or sauce much like couscous or quinoa. Sorghum can also be ground and added to flour to bake breads, or even popped like popcorn. (For more inspo, see Lesego Semenya’s flapjacks on page 36).