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Denningvleis – Sweet and Sour South African Lamb (With Video)

ByTaryn Yudaken
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If you’re looking for a unique lamb dish that is super tangy, flavorful and likely to impress your friends, look no further. The sweet and sour depth of this South African Denningvleis lamb stew makes it seem like you’ve been slaving away in the kitchen for days.

In reality, and with only a handful of ingredients, this meal can be thrown together in a few minutes and cooked in less than 2 hours. 

Also known as a Cape Malay bredie (stew), this interesting recipe is inspired by Indonesian cooking. It’s not a pretty history that brought Javanese Mayasians to the Western Cape hundreds of years ago.

Nevertheless, their cooking mingled with traditional South African flavors, and produced recipes like this rich and mouthwatering Denningvleis. 

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What Does Denningvleis Mean?

Roughly translated, Denningvleis is a mix of Javanese and Afrikaans. Javanese dendeng refers to water buffalo meat (a bit different from traditional beef), while vleis is the Afrikaans word for meat. 

What Is Denningvleis?

Denningvleis is a sweet and sour lamb stew. The core ingredient for tanginess is tamarind, while brown sugar adds sweetness. The stew is braised with a hefty load of onions for an hour or so, which come out exquisitely soft and caramalized alongside tender lamb.

Denningvleis is traditionally served with rice or geelrys (geel=yellow, rys=rice).

What Is Tamarind?

Tamarind fruit is a legume that looks like a peanut from the outside, but looks more like a date on the inside. It’s commonly sold as a dark paste to add a rich, unique flavor to curries, stews and sauces like chutney. 

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Denningvleis Ingredients

The key ingredients of denningvleis are lamb (stew meat or cubed), yellow onions and tamarind paste. Additional flavor comes from garlic, cloves and allspice. Brown sugar traditionally sweetens the tamarind’s tang, but if you’re strictly whole foods only, date paste works like a charm. 

Health Benefits of Denningvleis

The Features:

Lamb: Lamb is a delicious red meat with more healthy conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) fat than beef, promoting health for your body and brain. It also packs an unbeatable punch when it comes to iron and iron absorption. Lamb has a pretty high carbon footprint though, so be a detective when it comes to brands and search for meat from sustainable regenerative farms. 

Onion: Not to be outshined by more exotic ingredients, the common yellow onion is a wonderful source of prebiotic fiber to feed the healthy bacteria in your gut. It’s also been shown to reduce blood pressure and bad cholesterol.

Tamarind: Often sold as a paste, tamarind is super high in antioxidants and minerals like magnesium and potassium. It’s anti-inflammatory, and currently being studied as a treatment for diseases like diabetes. Tamarind is also one of the only known foods that is a rockstar at removing fluoride from the body through urine. 

The Extras:

Garlic: You can smell the benefits on this one! Societies around the globe have been using garlic medicinally for ages, and for good reason. Much like the onion, it lowers blood pressure, is packed with nutrients, and some studies show it can even prevent and lessen symptoms of the common cold!

Cloves: Would you believe a tiny clove could kill harmful bacteria? Cloves are extremely healthy, high in vital antioxidants and minerals. And they also have uniquely cool qualities, like the ability to reduce heartburn. Feeling acidic? Just pop a clove or two in your mouth and use like a mint (toss when finished, a whole clove isn’t a great texture to swallow). 

Cooking Oil:

Coconut Oil: One of the safest oils in the kitchen, coconut oil can be heated to high temperatures without its structure changing and becoming toxic (like olive oil). It has a high concentration of medium-chain triglycerides, popularly referred to as “MCTs.” MCTs are antimicrobial, can reduce appetite, and make your skin look great (or your pet’s skin).

OR

Olive Oil: One of the best oils to have in your kitchen, olive oil is best served at room temperature (or cold) as high heat changes its structure. It’s packed with monounsaturated fat, which is anti-inflammatory and might even reduce rates of cancer. Olive oil has also been shown to prevent strokes and heart disease. 

How To Make Denningvleis Healthy & Whole

Denningvleis is naturally healthy, with mostly whole ingredients.

The only ingredient that’s not totally whole is brown sugar. To make this dish more whole, you can use brown coconut sugar, which is less refined.

To make it even more whole, you could skip the sugar altogether and sweeten with date paste. (Just double the amount of date paste, as it’s not quite as sweet as sugar.)

As always, buy organic when you can. Everything from produce and dairy to meat and packaged food is better off without harmful pesticides. 

Remember: This is just a guide for informational advice, not to make you feel bad about your ingredients. Groceries are wildly expensive these days, so pick what you can afford and do the best you can. No guilt, no shame.

How To Make Denningvleis 

Preheat the oven to 300ºF. 

Warm coconut oil in a cast iron ovenproof pot on medium-high heat. While the oil is heating up, evenly sprinkle the salt over the lamb and rub into the meat. 

Brown the meat on all sides, working in batches if necessary, then put the meat aside.

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While the meat is browning, chop the onion. When the meat is aside, add the onion to the pot and cook about 5 minutes until soft and translucent.

Add the garlic and cook for about 30 seconds to release the fragrance. Add the water next to prevent the garlic from burning, then add the bay leaves, allspice, tamarind paste and brown sugar. 

Return the lamb and its juices to the pot and mix everything together. 

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Cover the pot and place it in the oven. Cook for 1.5 hours or until meat is fork-tender, giving it a quick stir about halfway through (at 45 minutes). 

NOTE: If you have time, turn the heat down to 200ºF, add an additional 1/2 cup of water and let the stew cook for another hour. It’s one of those dishes where the longer it cooks, the better.

(But it’s also delicious after 1.5 hours.)

Serve denningvleis with rice. 

Store in the fridge up to a week, or in the freezer up to 3 months. This dish is even better a few days after making!

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Note: the prep time is 0 minutes because for this recipe you can do the prep while you cook!

We love a warm meal in a bowl around here! If you’re looking for more soup and stew ideas, try these:

Love All Things South African?

Finish your stew with a serving of tea and rusks for dessert. Rusks are crunchy, sweet baked goods (similar to biscotti) packed with whole grains and dried fruit.

Dipped in sweet rooibos tea with milk and sugar? Simply delicious.

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South African Rusks

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South african Denningvleis feature image with sweet and sour lamb on a bed of yellow raisin rice on a white plate

Denningvleis – Sweet and Sour Lamb

This South African Denningvleis is a mouthwatering sweet and sour stew featuring tender lamb, onion, and tangy tamarind.
5 from 3 votes
Print Pin Rate
Course Main Dishes
Cook Time: 1 hour 40 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 40 minutes
Servings: 4

Ingredients

  • 1 tbs coconut oil or olive oil
  • 2 lbs lamb meat cubed or stew meat
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 2 large yellow onions
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 4-6 whole cloves or a couple pinches of clove powder
  • 2 tsp allspice
  • 2 tbs tamarind paste
  • 2 tbs brown coconut sugar or 4 tbs date paste
  • 3 cups water

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 300ºF.
  • Warm coconut oil in a cast iron ovenproof pot on medium-high heat. While the oil is heating up, evenly sprinkle the salt over the lamb and rub into the meat.
  • Brown the meat on all sides, working in batches if necessary, then put the meat aside.
  • While meat is browning, chop onion. When the meat is aside, add onion to the pot and cook about 5 minutes until soft and translucent.
  • Add the garlic and cook for about 30 seconds to release the fragrance. Add water next to prevent the garlic from burning, then add bay leaves, allspice, tamarind paste and brown coconut sugar (or date paste).
  • Return the lamb and its juices to the pot and mix everything together.
  • Cover the pot and place it in the oven. Cook for 1.5 hours or until meat is fork-tender, giving it a quick stir about halfway through (at 45 minutes).
  • NOTE: If you have time, turn the heat down to 200ºF, add an additional 1/2 cup of water and let the stew cook another hour.
  • Serve with rice.
  • Store in the fridge up to a week, or in the freezer up to 3 months. This stew is even better a few days after making!
Nutrition Facts
Denningvleis – Sweet and Sour Lamb
Amount per Serving
Calories
400
% Daily Value*
Fat
 
16
g
25
%
Saturated Fat
 
7
g
44
%
Polyunsaturated Fat
 
1
g
Monounsaturated Fat
 
5
g
Cholesterol
 
147
mg
49
%
Sodium
 
747
mg
32
%
Potassium
 
794
mg
23
%
Carbohydrates
 
17
g
6
%
Fiber
 
2
g
8
%
Sugar
 
10
g
11
%
Protein
 
47
g
94
%
Vitamin A
 
12
IU
0
%
Vitamin C
 
5
mg
6
%
Calcium
 
50
mg
5
%
Iron
 
5
mg
28
%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

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