"Looks Yummy": SA Woman Shows How She Made a Beef Pasta Meal for Under R10 and Impresses Mzansi

• South African food creator Olive Viglatvis shared a step-by-step budget cooking video on Instagram
• Olive used beef, pasta, carrots, onion, cabbage and soup powder to cook three portions for under R30 total
• The heartfelt reminder she added at the end of the video moved viewers across South Africa

A South African home cook known as Olivia Viglatvis stopped Mzansi in its tracks with a simple but powerful cooking video. She showed followers exactly how to feed a family on almost nothing, and the message she left at the end struck a nerve.

Olive posted the reel on 30 October 2026, walking viewers through a pasta dish made from ingredients that cost under R30 in total. She shopped carefully: beef cook-in-sauce for R9.20, two carrots for R2, a soup packet for R5, leftover pasta for R7.50, a small piece of cabbage for R2.50 and one onion for R3.48. The combined spend came to R29.68, before oil, seasoning and electricity.

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How Olive made the meal stretch

Working from her home kitchen, Olive sautéed the onion in oil, browned the beef, then added carrots and seasoned everything with salt, pepper and garlic. She mixed the soup packet with water to create a sauce, letting it thicken before thinning it out with starchy pasta water. The cabbage went in last, folding into a rich, saucy mixture that was then combined with the cooked pasta.

What began as a two-portion plan yielded three generous servings. That brought the cost down to R9.89 per portion, well below her original R15 target. Tasting the dish on camera, Olive said she loved the sauciness of the final result.

Her closing words gave the video its emotional weight. She said:

"Be kind, be nice; because this might be someone's only meal for the day."

She echoed the same sentiment in her caption, asking viewers to hold that thought before leaving a harsh comment.

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View the Instagram video below:

Mzansi reacts to Olive's budget cooking video

Viewers flooded the comments on her page with warmth and gratitude:

@spencerpinkylongwhiskers said:

"Amazing. She is so cheerful. Thank you."

@kar.green_65 wrote:

"I'm definitely going to make it... looks yummy ❤"

@koortzendebbie commented:

"You are truly inspiring! ❤"

@bron.davison shared:

"Love your cooking content Olive! And you seem like such a lovely person. Very happy to have found your page 🥰🍲🤗"

@ntwanano_nkuna said:

"I love love your content 💛 keep them coming 😍"

@justine_amicia added:

"Love your content, Olive. So wholesome! Keep it up ❤"

@crazydaisy59 wrote:

"LOVE LOVE LOVE that you're doing this ❤❤🥰🥳🌻"

More Briefly News stories on food

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• Just Eat’s AI tool turned menu names into bizarre food images, from jacket potatoes in coats to prawns with tiger cubs.
• American expat Kourtney tests Cape Town’s Mexican food scene at Mamacitas, praising cauliflower tacos, seafood nachos and colourful margaritas; locals react.

Source: Briefly News