Easy Vetkoek and Mince Recipe

In this month’s (July2013) issue of the Your Family Magazine they included a recipe for Vetkoek and Mince or Magwinya. I have never, ever tried making Vetkoek before – just the idea of working with hot oil really scares me, but I am determined to try new things, and that is exactly what I did!

The recipe is really easy and most of the ingredients are things I generally always have at home - bonus!

The recipe serves 6 – 8 so I halved it for my family. Here is the full recipe:

Vetkoek Ingredients

1kg Bread Flour
45ml Sugar
10ml Salt
10g Packet of Instant Yeast
1 Litre Lukewarm Water

Oil for deep frying

Mince Ingredients:

30ml Olive Oil
2 Onions, chopped
2x 45g Packets of Brown Onion Soup
1kg Beef Mince
Handful of chopped Parsley


Vetkoek Method:

Mix in all dry ingredients into a bowl and make a well in the centre. Add the lukewarm water whilst stirring until it forms a smooth dough. Cover and leave to rise in a warm place until the dough has doubled in size.

Once the dough is ready, knock it back a bit and roll into golf sized balls of dough. Deep fry in batches until they are beautifully golden in colour. Be sure to turn them while they are cooking and place them on a paper towel to cool.

Now, I don’t really know what I did wrong here, but my dough was like glue after the “rising” process.. anyway.. I persevered, added more flour, and more flour.. and MORE flour until it started to resemble something that actually looked like dough. Perhaps it was because I halved the recipe? Or it could be because I covered the dough in a blanket next to a hot water bottle (all nice and snug) to rise? It’s winter here ok.. and I could not find a “warm place” for it to rise in peace!? Unless I literally tucked the dough into my jacket for a few hours?

Mince Method:

Sauté the onions in olive oil until they are glazed, add the mince and brown. Sprinkle over the brown onion soup and add the water. Cook for about 10 minutes or until the sauce has thickened. Add the parsley.

I did change it up a bit.. I added a few spices: barbecue spice and paprika. I also added garlic and some soya sauce.. Oh and of course some green beans - I didn’t have any parsley and it needed something green.. To be very honest I have never added soup to mince before but it really did work well, and was quite interesting to see it thicken beautifully. I must say, even after I added all these “extras” it still needed something: tomato purée! (I will add this next time!)

It was really easy to make and I will definitely make it again. I must say I am very proud of myself for surviving my very first "cooking with hot oil" experience! Yay me!



Vetkoek and Mince!