Boereboontjies (South African green beans with potato)

No South African Sunday lunch is complete without a helping of boereboontjies.

When I was in year 3 (and even now!), one of my most favourite treats were when my mother would make me a green bean sandwich. You read that right. On a Monday or a Thursday I would have a green bean sandwich at school from the leftover boerekos we had the day before.

Why do I remember year 3 so vividly? That was when we were taught fractions for the first time. The teacher made us get our sandwiches out and taught us how to cut our sandwiches with a ruler into halves, quarters and eighths.

I’ve never experienced anger as much as I did on that day. My most prized treasure mangled for something that I had known long before I went to school… I loved school, but that day was, to my 10-year old mind, the worst day I had ever experienced. That was until I got punished by a student teacher for walking on the grass when I was the ONLY one not to walk on the grass! She’s hit me with that same ruler that I had to use to cut up my sandwich a week before…

What is boereboontjies?

In our household there are two ways of making boereboontjies (b-oo-ruh boing-keys): both are using the exact same ingredients, but they taste so very different! One was reserved for Sundays and the other (more diet-friendly) way was reserved for Wednesdays. Now you may ask why Sundays and Wednesdays? Growing up in our house we had a set menu every week: Monday was pap en wors, Tuesdays were stirfry, Wednesdays were boerekos with chicken (like the pictures above), Thursdays were pasta, Fridays were stuff from the freezer like chips, nuggets etc, Saturday was reserved for a braai and Sunday we either had a potjie or we had boerekos again (this time with beef).

First when we get fresh beans we have to hark them. Hark is the Afrikaans word for cutting off the ‘top and tail’ of each bean. My mother does this in front of the tv, doing it one bean at a time. I have to add that in South Africa my father used to get green beans by the crateful either directly from the farmers or from a padstal (shop next to the side of the road) so we would process it by hark-ing, then chopping before blanching and freezing.

Boereboontjies simply consists of green beans (like the fine green french beans we get here in the UK), onion, potato, salt, pepper and (on a Sunday) a knob of butter.

How to make boereboontjies

Weekday boereboontjies

This type is what is considered in my household as the ‘diet version’. It is where we would take some green beans and chop it roughly into 2cm chunks. We then put this on the stovetop and let it blanch in a little bit of water with a pinch of salt. To this we add a bit of onion and a bit of finely chopped potato. Let it cook gently until the potato is just cooked through, but can still hold its shape. Season with pepper if you’d wish and the dish is done. It is a lovely side dish as part of a weekday meal.

Sunday boereboontjies

This is my most favourite way of eating this side dish! We would prepare it very similarly as above: blanch the beans with onion and potato. Only this time the ratio of beans to potato is about 1:1 and the potato is cut up very finely so it will cook a lot faster. The onion is to your preference. Cook the beans, onion and potato until the potato is very soft. Then take a potato masher and break up the potatoes. This can be done roughly as you don’t want to lose the integrity of the beans. Season with salt and a lot of freshly ground black pepper. Add a knob of butter and you will have the best beans ever. It is simple, but it is wholesome and it brings out the best of both the beans and the potatoes.

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