Recipe
🍽️ DINNER
Langouste à la Vanille
Spiny lobster gently cooked in a fragrant sauce of vanilla, cream, and lime, the Comoros on a plate.
Comorian · medium · serves 4
prep 20 min · cook 25 min
~247 cal · 2g protein · 7g carbs · 22g fat · 1g fiber · 3g sugars · 14g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Langouste à la vanille is the Comoros islands distilled onto a plate, spiny lobster gently cooked in a delicate sauce of vanilla, cream, and lime. The Comoros and neighboring islands are among the world's great vanilla producers, and here the fragrant pod is used not in dessert but to perfume a luxurious seafood dish.
The pairing sounds unexpected but works beautifully: the floral sweetness of real vanilla against the sweet richness of lobster, brightened with lime and softened with cream. It is refined, special-occasion cooking.
Served in Moroni for weddings and honored guests, langouste à la vanille is elegant, aromatic, and unmistakably a product of its fragrant home.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally gluten-, egg-, nut- 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
4 spiny lobster tails
1 cup cream
1 vanilla pod, split
2 shallot
2 cloves garlic
1/2 cup white wine (or )
1 lime
1/2 fresh chili
Instructions
1
Halve the lobster tails (or slice the mushrooms) and sear briefly in a little butter or oil; set aside.
2
Soften the shallot and garlic, then add the wine and scrape the seeds from the vanilla pod into the pan.
3
Pour in the cream (or coconut cream) and simmer gently until lightly thickened and fragrant.
4
Return the lobster (or mushrooms) and warm through 5 minutes without boiling hard.
5
Finish with lime and a little chili and serve over rice.
Moroni tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Moroni. The sauce is the surprising part. Langouste a la vanille is finished with white wine, shallots, butter and cream, a straightforwardly French technique in an Indian Ocean Muslim archipelago, and the vanilla comes from vines the French planted here in the 1890s.
🗺️
Comoros. Langouste a la vanille is Comoran ingredients in a French technique: lobster with a sauce of white wine, shallots, butter and cream infused with vanilla, which the French planted here in the 1890s. Cooks disagree about whether the lobster should be simmered in the sauce or split, stuffed with the beans and roasted, and both are defended.
🌍
Africa. The structure repeats across most of the continent: one starch and one sauce. A grain or root is cooked stiff, torn or rolled by hand, and used to carry a stew of leaves, groundnut, okra or fish, usually from a shared bowl and with the right hand. UNESCO listings have followed that logic, inscribing couscous in 2020 as a shared Maghreb tradition and Ivorian attieke in 2024.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Comoros
Mkatra FoutraSoft coconut-scented griddle breads from the Comoros, torn and eaten with tea or curry.
MatabaPounded cassava leaves slow-cooked in coconut milk with fish, a fragrant green stew that is Comoros' national dish.
LaduToasted ground rice cooked in ghee and bound with sugar, cardamom, and a note of black pepper into fragrant sweet balls, a Comorian teatime treat.
Browse all Comoros recipes →
Good to know
Storing it: Stews and braises keep 3 to 4 days refrigerated and often taste better the next day. Reheat gently, adding a splash of water if it has thickened.
Make it a Comoros meal
Café Épicé (Comorian Spiced Coffee)Drink
LaduDessert
MatabaLunch
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Cuisine
Diet
Frequently asked questions
What is Langouste à la Vanille?
Spiny lobster gently cooked in a fragrant sauce of vanilla, cream, and lime, the Comoros on a plate.
Where does Langouste à la Vanille come from?
Langouste à la Vanille is a Comorian dish from Moroni, Comoros.
Can Langouste à la Vanille be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Langouste à la Vanille 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 Langouste à la Vanille 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 Langouste à la Vanille take to make?
About 45 minutes total (20 minutes prep, 25 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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