By Noluthando Dlamini
Two Durban University of Technology (DUT) Department of Food and Nutrition students showcased their indigenous dish using rooibos as the top ingredient at the department’s year-end cook-off recently.
Naming it the Rooibos, Mixed Berries and Chia Pudding, Luthando Msomi and Asithandile Sithupha prepared the dessert for sensory evaluation.
As part of what felt like a master chef cooking experience, DUT Journalism Programme students were invited to evaluate all prepared dishes.
Reflecting on their experience, Sithupha shared: “We developed skills in incorporating unique flavours and textures into modern desserts and gained a deeper understanding of South African culinary heritage.”
Msomi and Sithupha created a sweet, fruity, herbal desert with a creamy texture, tender berries and earthy undertones, complemented by Chia pudding and rooibos.
Rooibos is unique and grows only in South Africa. According to Klipopmekaar, a rooibos tea farm and supplier; the name rooibos is a derivation of Afrikaans ‘rooi’ meaning red and bos meaning bush, directly translating as red bush.
Red bush is a perfect description of the mature rooibos plant’s rich red-brown leaves at
the end of a hot summer in its native range. Rooibos tea is commonly consumed as tea. Klipopmekaar highlights that rooibos tea is derived from a plant species endemic to the Western Cape called Aspalathus linearis.
The rooibos plant grows on the Cederberg mountains naturally and was known to be used by the Khoi San but was rediscovered as a herbal tea by botanist Carl Thunberg in 1772. Later, in 1904, a Russian immigrant, Benjamin Ginsberg, invented the rooibos tea curing (sweating or fermentation) process used today.
Ginsberg sold herbal tea as an alternative to traditional tea and marketed it as “Mountain Tea” with great success.
Today, rooibos is well known and enjoyed as tea. At the same time, it has become famous as a cooking ingredient in the culinary world, challenging traditional perceptions of how rooibos is consumed.
