Recipe
🍳 BREAKFAST
Mieliepap with Amasi
Soft maize porridge served with amasi, tangy cultured milk, an everyday South African breakfast.
South African · easy · serves 4
prep 5 min · cook 20 min
~271 cal · 8g protein · 49g carbs · 6g fat · 4g fiber · 7g sugars · 3g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
↓ Jump to Recipe
AI-generated illustration
Mieliepap with amasi is an everyday South African breakfast at its most elemental, soft maize-meal porridge (mieliepap) served with amasi, the thick, tangy cultured milk that is a traditional staple among the Nguni peoples. The mild, warm porridge and the sour, cooling milk are a time-honored pairing.
Amasi is made by letting raw milk naturally, historically in a calabash or hide sack, producing something akin to a drinkable yogurt with deep cultural roots. Poured over warm pap, it makes a simple, nourishing, and probiotic-rich meal.
Eaten in homes across KwaZulu-Natal and the wider country, this humble breakfast connects modern South Africans to long-standing food traditions. Cheap, filling, and wholesome, it is the kind of everyday comfort that spans generations.
Saved recipes and passport stamps are kept on this device. Sign in to keep them across your devices and leave reviews.
Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian and gluten-, egg-, nut- 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
1.5 cups maize meal (mielie meal)
2 cups amasi (cultured milk) or milk
4 cups water
to taste sugar (optional)
a pinch salt
Instructions
1
Bring the salted water to a boil.
2
Whisk in the maize meal a little at a time to avoid lumps.
3
Cook gently, stirring, until soft and smooth, about 15 minutes.
4
Spoon into bowls, and sweeten only if you want to.
✎ Chef’s note
Plenty of households take this one savoury, with nothing but salt, and let the sourness of the amasi do the work.
5
Pour over the amasi (or plant kefir) and serve warm.
✎ Chef’s note
The other, and arguably more famous, way to eat pap with amasi is umphokoqo: the same maize meal steamed dry over a low heat for about 45 minutes and forked through every few minutes so it breaks into crumbs a little larger than couscous, then served cold under a generous dollop of amasi.
KwaZulu-Natal tradition.
Ratings & reviews
Cooked it? Rate this dish:
No account needed. Sign in to leave a full review with a comment.
Cooked it?
Kept on this device, no account needed. Sign in to leave a review and keep your passport across your devices.
No reviews yet, be the first to cook it.
🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
KwaZulu-Natal. Bunny chow began as a hollowed loaf sold from the Indian cafes of Grey Street in Durban, and the earliest versions were vegetarian, filled with beans. The name most likely comes from bania or bhania, the merchant caste who ran those lunch counters, and the origin is dated anywhere from the 1930s to the 1940s, with no single inventor established.
🗺️
South Africa. The braai is a social form as much as a cooking method. Boerewors, a coiled sausage sold by length rather than by weight, goes on the coals beside chops and skewered sosaties, and pap, stiff maize porridge, waits alongside with chakalaka, a spiced relish of onion, pepper, carrot and beans, to be eaten together by hand.
🌍
Africa. The structure repeats across most of the continent: one starch and one sauce. A grain or root is cooked stiff, torn or rolled by hand, and used to carry a stew of leaves, groundnut, okra or fish, usually from a shared bowl and with the right hand. UNESCO listings have followed that logic, inscribing couscous in 2020 as a shared Maghreb tradition and Ivorian attieke in 2024.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from South Africa
Chakalaka & PapA punchy curried vegetable-and-bean relish beside smooth white maize porridge, braai-day essentials.
Bunny ChowA hollowed half-loaf of bread filled with fiery Durban curry, the ultimate hand-held street meal.
BobotieCurried spiced mince baked under a golden savory custard, sweet with dried fruit and fragrant with bay, South Africa’s national comfort.
Browse all South Africa recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Whisk.
Storing it: Thickens as it sits. Reheat with extra water or milk to loosen, and keep 2 to 3 days refrigerated.
Make it a South Africa meal
Rooibos Iced TeaDrink
Malva PuddingDessert
Similar dishes from around the world
Papas de MilhoAngola
Mgaiwa PhalaMalawi
IncwancwaEswatini
Papa de ArrozGuinea-Bissau
MotogoBotswana
Igikoma cy'UburoBurundi
Cuisine
Diet
Vegetarian Recipes from Around the World
Gluten-Free Recipes from Around the World
Nut-Free Recipes from Around the World
Egg-Free Recipes from Around the World
Pork-Free Recipes from Around the World
Vegetarian Breakfasts from Around the World
Gluten-Free Breakfasts from Around the World
Nut-Free Breakfasts from Around the World
Egg-Free Breakfasts from Around the World
Frequently asked questions
What is Mieliepap with Amasi?
Soft maize porridge served with amasi, tangy cultured milk, an everyday South African breakfast.
Where does Mieliepap with Amasi come from?
Mieliepap with Amasi is a South African dish from KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
Can Mieliepap with Amasi be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Mieliepap with Amasi 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 Mieliepap with Amasi 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 Mieliepap with Amasi take to make?
About 25 minutes total (5 minutes prep, 20 minutes cooking), serving 4.
Get the Sunday Spin
One dish from somewhere in the world, in your inbox every Sunday. No spam, just dinner inspiration you can cook that day.