Polony is a favourite in Mzansi’s households because of its affordability and versatility. You can also make your own healthier and tastier version! Making your own polony at home offers a delightful culinary adventure where you have full control over ingredients, flavours, and textures, resulting in a sausage-like product perfectly suited to your taste buds.
Cheap and convenient
“Despite the stigma surrounding polony due to the listeriosis outbreak of 2017, it remains a staple in our grocery lists, particularly for our children’s lunch boxes,” explains Phiwokuhle Myoyo, a mother from East London in the Eastern Cape.
She highlights the convenience of polony but acknowledges the challenge of introducing healthy foods to children who have developed a taste for salty, often categorised as junk foods.
“We attempt to include tomatoes, cucumber, lettuce, and eggs into their lunch boxes, but sometimes they opt for bread, polony, and russians, leaving the veggies untouched.”
Myoyo believes that junk food has addictive tendencies that can make it challenging for children to switch to healthier options once they have developed a taste for salty, processed snacks.
Store-bought polonies contain ingredients that some might not find desirable, however, making your own polony is an opportunity to experiment with various spice and seasoning combinations, adding a personal touch to your creation.
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Create your own masterpiece
According to Pumla Brook-Thomae, a cookbook author and chef in Gqeberha in the Eastern Cape, some of the most nutritious additions to polony are veggies like onions, capsicum peppers, and mushrooms. These ingredients are her personal favourites.
“You’ve got to think hearty stew when making polony, meaning aromatics such as garlic, chillis, bay leaves and spices such as paprika, cayenne pepper, smoked paprika and fresh peppercorns lastly think umami (a Japanese culinary term for that savoury delicious),” she explains.
Brook-Thomae suggests that you can boost the healthiness of your polony by removing chicken skin or any fat rind from animal products, which is one way to control the fat content. Starting with leaner cuts, like chicken breasts, will also result in a leaner, healthier polony.
“If you are worried about the dryness of the chicken breast adding a glug of olive oil before processing the ingredients into a smooth paste will add a bit of moisture and added nutrition.”
Pumla Brook-Thomae
She adds, “As an advocate for home cooking I am a great believer in knowing exactly what went into my food. I am one of those people who spends time looking at food labels.”
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Be informed
Kinza Hussain, a registered dietitian with the Heart and Stroke Foundation South Africa, highlights that commercially produced polony is a prime example of processed food, typically high in unhealthy fats and salt, which we’re encouraged to minimise in our diets. Despite its affordability, it often replaces healthier protein options on our plates.
“The bad fats found in the polony can raise cholesterol whereas the salt can raise blood pressure. Uncontrolled high levels of both cholesterol and blood pressure can increase the risk for heart diseases and strokes.”
She underscores the importance of protein, a vital food group that should feature in the majority of our meals. Proteins are essential for regulating the immune system and building muscle mass. Moreover, when paired with carbohydrates and fats of good quality, protein sustains feelings of fullness and helps stabilise blood sugar levels over time.
“There are many alternative good quality proteins which can last long and are inexpensive. Amongst these include tinned fatty fish such as pilchards and tuna, plant proteins such as chickpeas, lentils and beans.”
Registered dietitian Kinza Hussain
Protein not only helps keep us feeling full for longer and maintain cholesterol levels but also plays a crucial role in overall health. Hussain explains that eggs, considered a complete protein, are another excellent source of this essential nutrient.
“This means that they do not need to be paired with another food in order to provide us with all protein our body needs.”
Additionally, opting for skinless chicken and leaner meat choices like ostrich provides healthier alternatives to heavily processed polony, she adds.
“Be sure to look out for the Heart Mark logo. Foods with this logo are guaranteed to be lower in added saturated fats, added sugars and added salts and higher in fibre.”
Hussain highlights that the Heart and Stroke Foundation South Africa has consistently advocated for the consumption of whole, minimally processed foods from all food groups to promote good heart, brain, and overall health.
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Spicy chicken polony by Pumla Brook-Thomae
Ingredients
- 800g chicken (dark meat skin removed)
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
- 1 medium red pepper, de-seeded & diced
- 1 tbsp chicken spice
- 1 chicken stock cube, dissolved in
- 600ml boiling water
- 2 tsp paprika
- 1 fresh chillis (optional)
- salt & pepper to taste
- 50g gelatine powder unflavoured
- 1 large beetroot, grated
Instructions
° Add all the ingredients into a large casserole except the salt and pepper.
° Simmer for 1 1/2 hours until the chicken falls off the bones and the fluid has reduced into a slightly thick broth.
° Season with salt and pepper.
° Strain the chicken into a bowl, about 250ml and quickly add gelatin. Whisk until smooth.
° Add to the meat and blend into a smooth consistency resembling a smoothie.
° Lastly, squeeze 2 tablespoons of beetroot from the beetroot you grated earlier.
° blend until the mixture turns slighly pink.
° empty the content into the two bottles and cool to the touch. ° refrigerate for 6 hours until set.
enjoy with homemade seed bread, butter and pickles of your choice .
