At Thornybush Monwana Lodge we love to spoil all our guests while they are on safari with us, regardless of their dietary needs.

Here’s one of our favourite recipes that gets our diabetic guests in a rapture. In fact, all our guests love these tasty bites.

Ingredients

• 200ml Finely chopped dates (125g)
• 125ml Water
• 2ml Bicarbonate of soda
• 25ml Oil
• 350-400ml Buttermilk
• 1 Large egg, beaten 55g
• 1000ml Bran- rich self-raising flour
• 250ml Pronutro whole-wheat cereal (90g)
• 10ml Baking powder
• 3ml Salt
• 1ml Grated nutmeg (optional)
• 125g Butter
• Sunflower seeds (optional)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
2. Boil the dates in a saucepan of water for 2-3 minutes until soft.
3. Stir in the bicarbonate of soda into the dates.
4. Allow to cool.
5. Beat the oil, 350ml buttermilk and the egg together.
6. Add the egg mixture to the cooled dates.
7. Sieve and blend the dry ingredients together.
8. Rub the margarine into the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles moist breadcrumbs.
9. Stir the date mixture into the dry ingredients.
10. Mix to form a soft dough.
11. If the mixture is too dry, add another 50ml-100ml of buttermilk.
12. Knead the mixture lightly.
13. Press the dough into a greased Swiss roll pan, with 20mm high sides.
14. Bake for 35 to 45 minutes until golden and cooked.
15. Turn the oven down to 80°C.
16. Turn out onto a wire rack to cool.
17. Cut the cake into fingers.
18. Place the rusks on a baking tray in the oven and leave them for 8 hours.

Alternatively, you can leave them in the warmer drawer overnight.

Enjoy with freshly ground coffee, preferably before an early morning game drive at Monwana Game Lodge.

It’s All Good

Once you’ve tasted these traditional nibbles with a twist, you won’t believe how healthy they really are. Each rusk has a glycaemic load of just 7, which makes it an intermediate food on the glycaemic index.

Despite this low risk, they’re still packed with good energy (358kj per serving) to carry you through to breakfast. More good news is that the cholesterol levels are just 5.5g per rusk and you’ll get 1.5g of fibre too.

Our rusks are just one of the traditional dishes served up at Monwana Lodge.

Living it Up with Diabetes

While it certainly can be a bit of a drag having to watch what you eat all the time, that’s no reason to skimp on life’s little pleasures.

At Thornybush we are happy to accommodate all the meal preferences of our guests, just make sure that you tell one of the staff on arrival if you have a specific dietary requirements.