Antega South Africa · Recipes
Everyday meal ideas for anyone hoping to conceive, written for South Africa.
Ingredients are shown in metric measures by default, and you can switch between metric and US cups and ounces on any recipe page. Each recipe includes allergen information, food-safety notes, storage guidance and approximate nutrition per portion.
These recipes are written for anyone hoping to conceive, including partners. General healthy-eating advice applies to both partners; talk to a doctor about any specific concerns.
If you are having fertility treatment, follow the food, drink and supplement advice given by your clinic — it takes priority over general guidance.
36 recipes available
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Lunch
Roosterkoek are bread rolls cooked straight on the braai grid over coals. Filled with mashed sugar beans, avocado and tomato instead of butter and jam, they make a filling lunch. They can also be cooked in a heavy pan on the stove.
Lunch
Vetkoek — also known as amagwinya or magwinya — is usually deep-fried. Baking the dough instead keeps the shape and the filling while using far less oil.
Evening mealTrying to conceive
A simple vegetarian bowl of home-made chakalaka with sugar beans and brown rice. Cooks in one pan, keeps well for the next day's lunch and uses ordinary store-cupboard tins.
40 min total
Evening mealTrying to conceive
Tinned pilchards in tomato sauce warmed with onion and peppers, served over soft samp. An affordable meal built around tinned fish and a South African store-cupboard staple.
70 min total
BreakfastTrying to conceive
Overnight oats made with maas and topped with seasonal fruit. Prepared the night before, so there is something ready on an early clinic or work morning.
10 min total
LunchTrying to conceive
A cold lunch box of cooked chicken, sugar beans, tomato and cucumber with a lemon dressing. Nothing needs reheating, which suits a long clinic day or a shift at work.
30 min total
BreakfastTrying to conceive
Scrambled egg with spinach in a wholewheat wrap. Ready in about ten minutes and easy to eat on the way out of the door.
13 min total
SnacksTrying to conceive
A small pot of plain yoghurt with chopped seasonal fruit and seeds. Useful when your appetite is small or when a clinic appointment runs long.
5 min total
Evening mealTrying to conceive
A lighter take on bobotie: curried mince stretched with brown lentils, baked under a set egg-and-milk topping with bay leaves. Recipes for bobotie differ from family to family — some use lamb, some add raisins, chutney or dried apricot, and this version simply reduces the meat and adds pulses.
65 min total
Evening mealTrying to conceive
A mild, fragrant Cape Malay-style chicken curry with cinnamon, cardamom and a little apricot jam for the characteristic sweet-savoury balance. Every Cape kitchen has its own spice mix, so treat this as one version rather than the definitive one.
60 min total
Evening mealTrying to conceive
Snoek is a Cape favourite, usually butterflied and cooked over coals with an apricot-and-butter basting. This lighter version uses a small amount of oil and jam and pairs it with a fresh tomato and onion salsa. Hake or yellowtail works the same way.
35 min total
BreakfastTrying to conceive
Soft maize meal porridge, the everyday South African breakfast, made with milk and finished with peanut butter and banana so it carries you further into the morning.
20 min total
LunchTrying to conceive
A vegetarian bunny chow: Durban-style sugar bean curry served in a hollowed quarter loaf. Traditionally made with mutton or beans and eaten with the hands, it is street food from Durban's Indian South African community. This version uses a wholewheat loaf and plenty of beans.
50 min total
LunchTrying to conceive
Vegetables cooked on the braai grid — baby marrow, peppers, red onion and butternut — tossed warm with chickpeas, lemon and parsley. A useful way to make the braai side dishes carry as much as the meat does.
40 min total
LunchTrying to conceive
A cold salad of sweetcorn, black-eyed beans (dinawa), tomato, red onion and parsley in a lemon dressing. Quick to put together from tins and easy to carry to work or a clinic appointment.
15 min total
LunchTrying to conceive
Ingelegde vis — cooked fish layered with onion in a turmeric-and-vinegar pickle, traditionally made at Easter in the Cape and eaten cold. Snoek and yellowtail are the classic choices; hake is easy to find and works well. This version uses less sugar than many family recipes.
45 min total
Smoothies & drinksTrying to conceive
Cooled rooibos blended with maas, banana and mango for a quick caffeine-free breakfast or afternoon drink. Rooibos is naturally caffeine-free, which suits people cutting back on strong coffee and tea.
10 min total
Evening mealTrying to conceive
A bredie is a slow-cooked stew in which the onions cook down into the sauce. Versions differ from home to home; this one uses skinless chicken with carrots, potato and green beans so the pot carries plenty of vegetables.
95 min total
Evening mealTrying to conceive
Speckled sugar beans in a mild tomato curry, served with brown rice. Dried beans are the most economical way to make this; tinned beans work when time is short.
75 min total
Evening mealTrying to conceive
Sosaties are marinated skewers with Cape Malay roots, usually threaded with dried apricots and onion. Lamb is the best-known version; this one uses chicken and adds peppers so there are vegetables on the skewer too.
45 min total
Evening mealTrying to conceive
Breyani is a layered rice dish central to Indian South African cooking, and every family cooks it slightly differently. This meat-free version layers spiced vegetables and brown lentils under rice, steamed together at the end.
90 min total
BreakfastTrying to conceive
Oats soaked overnight in cooled rooibos and milk, topped with pear and cinnamon. Made the night before, so there is breakfast ready on early mornings.
10 min total
LunchTrying to conceive
Umphokoqo (also called uphuthu) is dry, crumbly maize meal, most often eaten with cold amasi. It is especially associated with Xhosa and Zulu home cooking. A tomato and onion salad on the side adds vegetables and vitamin C.
40 min total
Evening mealTrying to conceive
Tinned pilchards cooked into a quick tomato curry. It is one of the most affordable ways to put oily fish on the table, and it comes together in about half an hour.
35 min total
Evening mealTrying to conceive
Geelrys — yellow rice with turmeric, cinnamon and raisins — has Cape Malay roots and is served at tables around the country. Here it is turned into a full meal with brown lentils and roasted butternut and carrot.
60 min total
Evening mealTrying to conceive
Sishebo is the saucy relish eaten with pap — usually tomato and onion, often with meat. This everyday version uses braised chicken and serves it with smooth pap and morogo.
65 min total
Evening mealTrying to conceive
Chicken marinated in a chilli, garlic and lemon peri-peri baste, then grilled or oven-roasted and served with roasted butternut, pepper and onion. Adjust the chilli to whatever your household enjoys.
65 min total
Evening mealTrying to conceive
A Southern African-style pot of sweet potato simmered in a tomato and groundnut (peanut butter) sauce, finished with morogo or spinach. Filling, inexpensive and entirely plant-based.
50 min total
BreakfastTrying to conceive
Shop-bought mageu — the pasteurised fermented maize drink sold in cartons — poured over oats with banana and cinnamon. A filling breakfast that needs no cooking, which helps on a load-shedding morning.
5 min total
Evening mealTrying to conceive
Morogo braised down with onion and tomato, then bulked out with sugar beans so it works as a main meal rather than a side dish. Serve with pap, samp or bread.
45 min total
Evening mealTrying to conceive
A gently spiced Cape Malay-style curry: chickpeas with onion, tomato and warm spices rather than heat. Serve with rice, roti or bread.
40 min total
LunchTrying to conceive
Beetroot is on almost every South African salad table. Here it is roasted and tossed with brown lentils, naartjie or orange segments and red onion, which makes it substantial enough for a work lunch.
55 min total
SnacksTrying to conceive
No-bake snack balls made from three cupboard staples. Useful for a long clinic day, a lunch box or an afternoon at work, and cheaper than anything sold as a health snack.
15 min total
LunchTrying to conceive
Mielie kernels and finely chopped spinach in a light batter, cooked in a pan with very little oil. Good as a light supper with salad, or cold in a lunch box.
30 min total
Evening mealTrying to conceive
Butter beans simmered in a tomato, onion and green pepper sauce until thick. A store-cupboard pot that costs very little and reheats well.
40 min total
BreakfastTrying to conceive
A savoury one-pan breakfast: beans warmed with tomato and onion, with eggs cooked firmly on top. Ready in about fifteen minutes and made from things most kitchens already have.
20 min total
