Fiji: vegan vakalolo

Welcome to Fiji, our latest stop on this vegan world tour. Here we steam some vegan vakalolo, a cassava-based dessert served in a rich caramel coconut sauce. Read on to learn more about Fijian cuisine or jump straight to the recipe.

Fijian cuisine

Fijian cuisine is a unique fusion of native island ingredients, diverse cultural influences, and traditional cooking methods ​[1]–[4]​. Pacific staples like taro, cassava, and coconut form the foundation of many dishes. With some 300 islands in the country, the abundance of fresh seafood is not surprising. Fiji was colonized by the British Empire and saw a large influx of indentured workers from India. Many of these migrants have remained, contributing to Fiji’s multicultural society. Today, Fijian-Indo cooking features curries, Indian spices, and plenty of coconut milk. Chinese influences are also evident in dishes like sweet dumplings and chop suey.

Fijian dishes

Indian influences are seen in dishes like fish suruwa, a type of Indian seafood curry with coconut milk served with white rice and roti, murukku – a Tamil savoury snack made from deep-fired chickpea or lentil flour, and roti wraps filled with curry. The Chinese population has brought sapasui, also known as Samoan chop suey. These fried noodles are flavoured with soy sauce and ginger and often contain chicken.

Fijian cuisine also uses a lot of interesting local plants. Nama, also known as sea grapes or green caviar, is a type of seaweed often eaten raw as a condiment and duruka, or Fijian asparagus, is the flower bud from a type of sugar cane. Traditional Fijian dishes include palusami, where taro leaves are filled with meat or seafood and cooked in a lovo. Rourou is a stew made from taro leaves and coconut, often eaten with boiled taro.

On the sweet side, you can find vakalolo. This dessert is made from grated cassava and often served with a coconut caramel sauce. The dish should not be confused with vakalolo made with octopus, fish or crabs.

Vegan vakalolo

A series of dishes are called vakalolo, where the main ingredient is swimming in a rich coconut sauce. (According to Google Translate, vakalolo means “to swim” in Fijian). On the savoury side, you will find kuita vakalolo with octopus ​[5]​, ika vakalolo with fish ​[6]​, and qari vakalolo featuring crabs ​[7], [8]​.

The most common version of vakalolo is a sweet dish made from cassava which is steamed or boiled in large leaves before being served in a caramel coconut sauce. The vegan vakalolo is so popular that it has become synonymous with the term itself. Unless specified otherwise, the term vakalolo seems to refer specifically to the vegan vakalolo dessert.

How to make vegan vakalolo

To make vegan vakalolo, you start with grating cassava and maybe some taro ​[8]–[15]​. This is mixed with sugar, wrapped in large leaves such as banana leaves and then steamed or boiled. (Side note, remember that un-cooked cassava is poisonous so be sure to cook it through ​[16]​.) Some cooks add grated coconut to the parcel and some like to include spices like ginger, nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon, and cardamom. While cooking the vakalolo parcels, a caramel coconut sauce is prepared by melting brown sugar, adding coconut cream and then simmering for a long time to reduce the sauce and develop more flavour. Finally, the cooked cassava is chopped into bite-size pieces and mixed with the coconut sauce. Serve immediately!

It is worth noting that quite a few home chefs skip the coconut sauce and just eat the steamed cassava on its own. Those versions more often called for including the shredded coconut in the cassava itself, making the parcel more flavourful and less reliant on the sauce.

Conclusion

With only three ingredients, the vegan vakalolo was very straightforward to prepare. This vegan Fijian dessert came together in about 15 min of work and an hour of waiting. The caramel coconut sauce dominates the dish and adds sweetness and rich caramel flavour, almost completely drowning the vakalolo itself.

While many home cooks serve the vegan vakalolo without any sauce, just the steamed packets, I think the sauce adds quite a bit. I tried eating some of the vakalolo before mixing with the sauce and it is delicious but the flavours are much milder. It should be noted that the cooks that prepare vakalolo without sauce typically include desiccated coconut with their cassava. Since I did not do this, I lost that coconut flavour. But the sauce is not just a flavour enhancer; fresh out of the packet, the vakaloo is very sticky and a bit tricky to handle. Coating the chunks with sauce alleviates the stickiness and makes the dish much easier to eat. I can also see the steamed cassava being a bit dry on just it’s own.

Overall, vegan vakalolo is a simple vegan Fijian dessert which is well worth trying if you have an hour to spare.

Join me next time when we visit Micronesia, Melanesia’s neighbouring region here in the Pacific Ocean. If you don’t want to miss the next stop, you can subscribe to the email list and I’ll send you an alert when we arrive.

Vegan vakalolo

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Vegan vakalolo

Vakalolo is a delicious Fijian dessert where steamed or boiled cassava is served in a delectable caramel coconut sauce.

Course Dessert

Cuisine Melanesian

Keyword cassava, coconut

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 1 hour hour

Servings 4 people

Ingredients

Vakalolo

• 500 mL cassava 400 g; poisonous, see note
• 50-100 mL brown sugar
• banana leaves or parchment paper

Caramel coconut sauce

• 100 mL brown sugar
• 200 mL coconut milk or cream

Instructions

Vakalolo

• Use a knife to remove the skin from the cassava.
• Grate the cassava finely
• Mix the sugar into the cassava
• Wrap a few tablespoons of dough in a banana leaf or parchment paper. Tie tightly so it doesn't leak.
• Bring a large pot of water to the boil and boil the packets for 45-60 min
• Option: Instead of boiling the packets, you can steam them for 45-60 minutes.

Caramel coconut sauce

• Add the sugar to a pot on medium to high heat. Melt the sugar and leave until it grows darker.
• Remove from heat and carefully add the coconut milk. The sugar is very hot and the first milk will start boiling. Stir until the sugar is dissolved.
• Simmer on low heat wihtout a lid while the vakalolo is boiling, 30-60 min. The sauce should change colour to a deep brown.

Assembly

• When the vakalolo has finished cooking, remove them from the banana leaf or parchment paper packets.
• While still hot but not too hot to handle, cut or tear into bite-size chunks.
• Mix the chunks with the caramel coconut sauce and enjoy straight away.

Notes

Uncooked cassava contains a cyanide precursor and is poisonous. But once cooked, it can be delicious.

I chose to steam my cassava parcels in case they were leaking (in which case boiling might be worse).

 

References