Recipe
🍰 DESSERT
Kgojwa ya Moretlwa (Wild Berry and Milk Pudding)
Pounded wild moretlwa berries steeped and whisked into cold sweet milk, a traditional Botswana after-meal sweet.
Motswana · easy · serves 4
prep 20 min · cook 0 min
~509 cal · 9g protein · 114g carbs · 6g fat · 4g fiber · 90g sugars · 4g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Kgojwa ya moretlwa is a traditional Botswana dessert built on moretlwa, the small russet berries of the wild raisin bush, Grewia flava, that grow across the Kalahari sandveld. Where its beer-making cousin is , this version is gentle and sweet: the dried berries are pounded, steeped, and whisked with milk into a cool, softly tart pudding eaten after a meal.
Moretlwa has fed and refreshed Batswana for generations, gathered by women and children in the dry months and dried for keeping. Pounding cracks the fruit from its little stones so the sweet-sour pulp can be loosened with a splash of warm water, then it is strained and married with milk and a little sugar. Government and Slow Food catalogues of the country's indigenous foods both place the moretlwa drink among Botswana's genuine desserts.
Served cold, it is smooth, faintly grainy and quietly refreshing, the taste of the veld turned into a homely sweet. It is a reminder that the Kalahari's wild fruits, not just its cattle and , sit at the heart of Setswana eating.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian and gluten-, nut-, egg- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 4
2 cups dried moretlwa (wild raisin, Grewia flava) berries
Hard to find? dried cranberries or raisins soaked until soft - a workable stand-in for the tart, jammy pulp, though it lacks moretlwa’s distinct veld flavour
3 cups milk
3 tbsp sugar
1 cup warm water, for steeping
Instructions
1
Pound the dried berries in a mortar just enough to crack the fruit away from its small hard stones, then pour over the warm water and leave to steep for 15 minutes.
✎ Chef’s note
Pound gently. You want to loosen the pulp, not smash the stones, which are bitter if broken up into the mix.
2
Work the softened pulp with your fingers to release it, then press the whole lot through a sieve, keeping the thick fruit liquid and discarding the stones and skins.
3
Whisk the strained fruit pulp with the milk and sugar until smooth and evenly coloured, tasting for sweetness.
4
Chill thoroughly, then whisk again and serve cold in glasses or bowls as a light after-meal sweet.
Setswana indigenous-food tradition, recorded in Botswana heritage recipe collections.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Gaborone. Gaborone eats seswaa, beef boiled long and pounded to soft threads with little more than salt, served over maize meal at every wedding and funeral. Sorghum porridge, bogobe, and morogo wild greens complete a kitchen shaped by cattle country.
🗺️
Botswana. Botswana's food is shaped by the Kalahari and cattle country, seswaa (pounded slow-cooked beef), sorghum and maize porridge, and morogo wild greens. Simple, filling, and beef-forward, it centers the communal pot.
🌍
Africa. Much of what reads as timeless African cooking is younger than the Atlantic crossings. Maize, cassava, groundnut, chilli and tomato all arrived from the Americas after 1500 and pushed older crops aside; millet, sorghum, teff, yam and fonio are the ones that were already here, and the map still shows the join.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Botswana
Seswaa with PapBeef simmered for hours with little more than salt, then pounded into rich shreds, Botswana’s dish of weddings and state occasions.
DiphaphathaSoft Botswana griddle breads: quick, dense little flatbread rounds cooked in a dry pan and split with butter or jam for breakfast.
DikgobeSamp and beans (or sorghum) slow-cooked soft together into a filling one-pot, a staple of the Botswana table.
Browse all Botswana recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Mortar and pestle, Whisk.
Storing it: Keep chilled and covered, and enjoy within 2 to 3 days.
Make it a Botswana meal
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Botswana Ginger BeerDrink
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Frequently asked questions
What is Kgojwa ya Moretlwa (Wild Berry and Milk Pudding)?
Pounded wild moretlwa berries steeped and whisked into cold sweet milk, a traditional Botswana after-meal sweet.
Where does Kgojwa ya Moretlwa (Wild Berry and Milk Pudding) come from?
Kgojwa ya Moretlwa (Wild Berry and Milk Pudding) is a Motswana dish from Gaborone, Botswana.
Can Kgojwa ya Moretlwa (Wild Berry and Milk Pudding) be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Kgojwa ya Moretlwa (Wild Berry and Milk Pudding) recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Kgojwa ya Moretlwa (Wild Berry and Milk Pudding) safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Kgojwa ya Moretlwa (Wild Berry and Milk Pudding) take to make?
About 20 minutes total (20 minutes prep, 0 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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