Chakalaka South African Vegetable Relish Vidhya S Home Cooking

I am sharing this delicious chakalaka, south African vegetable relish, today. I came across this African recipe when I was reading about bunny chow. It’s been on my to-do list for a while. Finally, I got a chance to make it this year and am so excited to share it here.

What is Chakalaka

Chakalaka is a South African vegetable and bean relish, but I would like to call it vegetable and bean curry. And it’s more like a curry with all the spices and vegetables. I served it along with rice and paired it with a raita for a complete meal.

The Origin

The word chakalaka comes from the Zulu language, and it means “all together.” This chakalaka is a staple dish throughout the country, but what I learned is that this dish has originated from the townships of Johannesburg. (referred here) The goldmine workers there cooked some canned beans, tomatoes, and whatever fresh vegetables they had and spiced it up. And that’s chakalaka. Interesting right?

Ingredients Required for Chakalaka

The ingredient list might look long, but most of them are vegetables if you take a closer look. Yes, there are some spices and condiments, but most of them are pantry staples. I have some ingredient alternatives in the recipe notes section. Do check it out. Vegetables: Apart from onion, tomatoes, garlic, ginger, and green chili/ green chili peppers. We also need green cabbage, carrot, and colored bell peppers. Adjust the veggies as per your preference. Spice and condiments: These spices and condiments make this chakalaka more delicious. I have used curry powder, smoked paprika, and cayenne pepper. We also use brown sugar, ketchup, and vegan Worcestershire sauce to balance the spice. Beans and broth: I have used a can of cannellini beans and vegetable broth. You can use canned baked beans. In that case, you can skip the brown sugar and the vegan Worcestershire sauce. Apart from these ingredients, we also need oil, salt, and some cilantro to garnish.

Prep-Work:

As we are using a lot of vegetables, we need to chop a bit. You can chop the vegetables as a part of your meal prep, and once you have the veggies ready, you can easily make this dish in no time. It’s more like a “saute, dump and go” kind of recipe.

Chop all the veggies and set aside.Drain the water from the cannellini beans and rinse it and set it aside.

How to make Chakalaka (Instant Pot Method)

Set the Instant Pot in saute mode. Add the 3 tbsp of oil and after 30 to 45 seconds, when the oil is hot, add the chopped onion, garlic, green chili, and ginger. Saute until the onion turns soft and tender or for about 3 to 4 minutes. Now turn off the Instant Pot. Turning it off after sauteing onion helps to prevent the burn signal in the newer Instant Pot models.

Add the other veggies – tomatoes, cabbage, carrot, and bell peppers. Gently mix them all.

Now add all the spices and condiments – curry powder, smoked paprika, cayenne pepper, brown sugar, salt, ketchup, and the vegan Worcestershire sauce.

Add the broth and mix all the ingredients.

Now add the rinsed beans, and no need to mix the beans. Just leave as a top layer. As the canned beans were already soft, I did not mix them frequently.

Close the Instant Pot. Make sure the vent is in the sealing position. Select manual/pressure cook and set the time to 2-minutes at high-pressure mode. When the cooking is complete, wait for 10 minutes, then quickly release the remaining pressure. Carefully open the lid after releasing the pressure and mix the chakalaka.

Now add the cilantro and gently mix the chakalaka and simmer for 3 to 5 minutes in the saute mode. Check for seasoning and adjust at this stage. This simmering step is optional. But it helps the sauce to thicken a bit. Turn off the Instant Pot and serve it warm with rice or relish it as is.

Recipe Notes

Adjust the vegetable amount as per your preference. I didn’t go for any preferred cut for the vegetables. I just chopped them as per my preference.As we are using ketchup, broth, and canned beans, be cautious with the salt amount. You can check for the seasoning towards the end and adjust accordingly. If you like spicy relish, skip the brown sugar or reduce the amount. Or you can skip the green chili as well. As mentioned in the original recipe, you can use canned baked beans. In that case, you can skip the brown sugar and the vegan Worcestershire sauce.We only need 2 tsps of the Worcestershire sauce. If you can’t or don’t want to source it, add 1 tsp of soy sauce and 1 tsp of apple cider vinegar. It just adds that umami/savory flavor. So adjust accordingly. You can use cannellini or navy or great northern beans for this recipe.

My Chakalaka Recipe without Baked Beans

Like any other cuisine, the spices used in this recipe varies according to the region. I adapted my recipe from the African Bites website. I went with regular curry powder and some cayenne and smoked paprika. One thing I noticed is all the recipes called for baked beans. Not all canned baked beans are vegetarian. Some might contain pork. Even though I have a vegetarian baked beans recipe in my book, I used a short cut for this chakalaka. I used canned cannellini beans. I added some vegan Worcestershire sauce(check recipe notes for alternatives), ketchup, and some brown sugar to mimic that baked bean’s flavor. You can use cannellini or navy or great northern beans for this recipe.

Serving details

As I mentioned before, more than relish, I made it like curry with some sauce to serve it with rice. It pairs well with any bread and also meat dishes. It is created to pair with any starchy dishes. It’s one of the popular barbeque dishes in South Africa.

Instant Pot Vegetarian Curries

PS – If you try this chakalaka recipe, please don’t forget to comment and rate this recipe. If you have any questions, please leave a comment, and I will get to it asap. Make sure to follow me on my Pinterest for more healthy and delicious ideas! Follow me on Instagram or join my Facebook Group for more gardening and recipe updates.