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Side · In Afrikaans: Chakalaka-pastaslaai

Chakalaka pasta salad

Fusilli with chakalaka, baked beans and a spoon of mayonnaise. Four ingredients, ten minutes' work — and the hottest salad on the table.

This salad is pure everyday invention: chakalaka sits ready on South African shelves, pasta is always there, and at some point somebody put the two together. Today it is on every second braai table next to the curry pasta salad.

Prep
15 min
On the fire
12 min
Serves
8
Effort
easy
Pasta salad with beans, corn and pepper in a bowl
Vegan Feast Catering · CC BY 2.0

When it goes on

Done beforehand

Made in the kitchen. On the table before you light up.

Equipment: nothing

This line

Shisa nyama20th century to todayMade at the Capelate 20th century to today

Braai as a public affair, butchery and fire in one place, fatty cuts, pap and chakalaka as standard.

Method

  1. Cook the pasta

    To the bite in salted water, drained and rinsed cold. Let it cool completely — warm pasta splits mayonnaise.

  2. Bring it together

    Combine pasta, chakalaka, beans with their sauce and mayonnaise in a large bowl. Fold gently rather than stirring, so the beans stay whole.

  3. Season

    Salt and pepper. If the chakalaka is mild, a finely chopped chilli helps; if it is fierce, another spoon of mayonnaise does.

  4. Chill

    At least an hour in the fridge so the flavours join up. Scatter with parsley before serving.

Tips

  • If you cooked your own chakalaka, use it cold — and use less mayonnaise, because it brings more sauce with it.
  • The salad takes leftovers: grilled vegetables, feta, a bit of chopped wors. It is more container than recipe.
  • It keeps two days. Not longer — the mayonnaise separates and the pasta goes mealy.

This salad is proof that a cuisine works when it reuses itself. Chakalaka is hot, sour and spiced; pasta is neutral and blunt; mayonnaise joins the two and takes the edge off the heat.

There is nothing more to it, and nothing more is needed. Ten minutes' work, one pot, one bowl — and a salad that does not disappear next to wors and chops, because it dares to have flavour.

Cook the chakalaka yourself and you get a distinctly better salad. Use the tin and you get the one South Africa actually eats.

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