From grandmothers to daughters: The generational story of bredie this Heritage Month
Tomato bredie is an all-time favourite.
Image: Instagram / cookingwithme
Every country has dishes that tell a story, and in South Africa, one of those dishes is the bredie.
It’s more than just a stew; it's a bowl of history, and for me, it's a pot full of memories.
In my family, as in many households in South Africa, my mother made us bredie at least once a week.
The smell would fill our home, and we knew a good meal was on the way.
She and my grandmother passed down their recipes, and with them, a piece of our heritage.
Cabbage bredie is a family favourite.
Image: Instagram / my_cape_town_kitchen
The word "bredie" itself is a clue to its fascinating past. Many assume that it’s an Afrikaans word, but it actually originates from Malaysia.
The dish and the cooking style were introduced to the Cape by the Cape Malay community, who were brought to the colony by the Dutch East India Company, primarily as enslaved people from places like present-day Indonesia and Malaysia.
The name "bredie" originally referred to a type of oriental spinach.
Over time, it evolved to describe a slow-cooked stew where a main vegetable, like tomatoes, green beans, or pumpkin, is cooked with meat, typically mutton.
This fusion of ingredients and techniques created a unique and distinctly South African dish.
While "tamatiebredie" is arguably the most famous and widely enjoyed version, the bredie family is diverse.
You can find many variations, each highlighting a different vegetable.
From the unique flavour of "waterblommetjie bredie" to hearty green bean or cabbage bredies, each version offers a taste of a specific tradition and season.
My father always said his favourite was green bean bredie and believes it's the best kind there is.
For me, it was always the ever-popular tomato bredie.
But the real star was my grandmother, the queen of the cabbage bredie. She had a way of making it that no one else could.
Even though there are more than enough recipes online or in classic South African recipe books, the best way to learn how to cook it is by watching the elders do it.
I used to stand next to my mother in the kitchen, watching her cook the different variations of the dish.
Now, I show my daughters how to make a pot of bredie with my own tricks, making the recipe a part of my family’s story and a way of keeping my mother and grandmother’s memory alive.
Today, bredie is a comfort food for many South Africans. It connects us to our past and to each other.
In celebrating Heritage Month, we are celebrating these very things. A dish like bredie reminds us that our story as a nation is made of many different threads, woven together over time.