Recipe
🍳 BREAKFAST
Fidjós
Bissau breakfast fritters: a mashed-banana and flour batter fried into small golden puffs, sold in paper cones on the morning streets.
Bissau-Guinean · easy · serves 4
prep 15 min · cook 15 min
~292 cal · 6g protein · 67g carbs · 0g fat · 4g fiber · 21g sugars · 0g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Fidjós are Guinea-Bissau's morning fritters, a batter of very ripe mashed banana and flour, lightly spiced and fried into small, golden, craggy puffs. Fried at dawn and sold in twists of recycled paper, they are the ultimate Bissau grab-and-go breakfast for workers heading to the docks and markets.
The recipe is a Creole meeting of Portuguese-style fried dough and West African bananas, sweetened just enough and sometimes scented with lime or nutmeg. Crisp at the edges and soft within, they are cheap, cheerful, and everywhere.
Warm from the pan and eaten out of hand with sweet coffee, fidjós are a small daily pleasure in Bissau, the kind of hot, just-fried treat that draws a queue to the street vendor's stall each morning.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian, vegan and dairy-, nut-, egg- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 4
3 very ripe bananas, mashed
1.5 cups all-purpose flour
3 tbsp sugar
1.5 tsp baking powder
1/2 lime lime zest (or a pinch of nutmeg)
a pinch a pinch of salt
for frying , for frying
Instructions
1
Mash the bananas smooth, then stir in the sugar, lime zest, and salt.
2
Fold in the flour and baking powder to a thick, spoonable batter that just holds its shape.
3
Heat about 1 inch of oil in a pan over medium heat until a drop of batter sizzles at once.
4
Fry heaped spoonfuls in batches, turning, until puffed and deep golden, then drain and serve warm.
Bissau dockside street-food tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Bissau. Mancarra is the local word for groundnut, so caldo de mancarra is literally peanut broth, ladled over rice. Its palm-oil counterpart is caldo de chabeu, made from the pulp of the palm fruit with okra, tomato and fish, and that is the dish that carries the palm rather than this one.
🗺️
Guinea-Bissau. The cashew figure is startling: the nut has accounted for something like two thirds of merchandise exports and, by central-bank measures, the great majority of export revenue, with more than half of farming households growing it. The apple is eaten and fermented locally rather than exported, which is the half of the crop outsiders never see.
🌍
Africa. Africa's fifty-four nations hold cuisines as different as Morocco's slow-cooked tagines and South Africa's open-fire braai, yet shared threads run through them: ancient grains like millet, sorghum, and teff; stews thickened with groundnut, okra, or palm; and fiery condiments from Tunisian harissa to Ethiopian berbere. Staple starches, fufu, injera, ugali, couscous, anchor communal meals often eaten by hand from a shared dish, where hospitality is a point of honor.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Guinea-Bissau
Caldo de PeixeA Guinea-Bissau fish-and-rice pot simmered with palm oil, tomato, and greens in one dish.
ChabéuFish simmered in a thick red palm-nut sauce with onion, tomato, and chili, served over rice, a signature dish of Guinea-Bissau.
Papa de ArrozGuinea-Bissau's gentle rice porridge, the national grain simmered soft and loose, sweetened and served with a pour of milk.
Browse all Guinea-Bissau recipes →
Good to know
Storing it: Fried food is best eaten fresh while crisp. Re-crisp leftovers in a hot oven or air fryer; the microwave makes them soft.
Make it a Guinea-Bissau meal
Doce de Papaia (Papaya Sweet)Dessert
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Frequently asked questions
What is Fidjós?
Bissau breakfast fritters: a mashed-banana and flour batter fried into small golden puffs, sold in paper cones on the morning streets.
Where does Fidjós come from?
Fidjós is a Bissau-Guinean dish from Bissau, Guinea-Bissau.
Can Fidjós be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Fidjós recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Fidjós safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Fidjós take to make?
About 30 minutes total (15 minutes prep, 15 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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