Karoo cuisine is a regional culinary tradition from the Karoo, a vast semi-arid region in South Africa, shaped by the area's harsh, arid landscape and the hardy, drought-resistant plants and animals that thrive there.
Lamb is the defining protein, prized for the flavor imparted by the sheep's diet of aromatic Karoo shrubs and grasses. Other ingredients include wild game such as springbok, ostrich, and blesbok, along with indigenous plants like wild rosemary, buchu, and suurvy.
Cooking methods favor slow, gentle techniques: slow-roasting, braising, and pot-roasting, often in a traditional three-legged cast-iron pot called a potjie, used for hearty stews simmered over an open fire or coals. Smoking and drying are also important preservation methods, yielding biltong (dried, cured meat) and droëwors (dried sausage).
Many traditional Karoo dishes trace to the Khoikhoi and San peoples and to later Afrikaner settlers. Regional variation exists within the Karoo itself: the Little Karoo is known for stone fruit and olive production, while the Central Karoo is known for lamb and game meats.