Recipe · The Sorghum Agenda®
Sunday Kos sorghum salad bowl
"Mabele in a Sunday Kos inspired bowl — everything you'd want from a Sunday plate, built around the grain instead of beside it." — Zandile Queen Finxa
As cooked live on Expresso for Africa Month.
The story
Sunday kos is a whole grammar — the roast, the chakalaka, the sides that matter more than the main. This bowl keeps that grammar and swaps the centre: sorghum instead of rice, soaked overnight so it cooks soft with a bite. It's the argument the whole agenda makes, in one dish you can put on a table any day of the week.
Ingredients
The grain
1 cup (250g) sorghum, soaked overnight
Roasting tray
Butternut, small cubes
Beetroot, small cubes
Cherry tomatoes
Red cabbage, finely chopped
Cauliflower, chopped
Broccoli, chopped
Olive oil, to drizzle
The pan
400g chickpeas in brine, drained
350g fresh chakalaka
Seasoning
1 tbsp turmeric
1 tbsp smoked chilli flakes
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Micro herbs, to garnish
Method
Cook the pre-soaked sorghum for 30–40 minutes, or until soft with a bite.
Pre-heat the oven to 200°C. On one roasting tray, in individual rows, place the butternut, beetroot, tomatoes, cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli. Drizzle with olive oil and season with sea salt and black pepper. Top the cauliflower with turmeric.
Bake for 20–30 minutes, turning halfway through to ensure even cooking.
In a pan over medium-high heat, add 2 tbsp olive oil. Add the drained chickpeas and brown slightly, then add the chakalaka and cooked sorghum. Mix and allow to warm through before setting aside.
Build the bowl: sorghum and chickpea base, roasted vegetables arranged in their rows on top, smoked chilli flakes over, micro herbs to finish.
Sorghum is not a poverty food. It is a Pan-African archive, and the future of how we eat, ferment, and gather.
— Queen Finxa
Notes
The overnight soak isn't optional — it's the difference between a grain that gives and a grain that fights you. Keeping the vegetables in rows rather than tossed means each one keeps its own character in the bowl.
Pairs well with