Recipe
🍳 BREAKFAST
Arepa di Pampuna
Sweet Curaçaoan pumpkin pancakes, spiced with cinnamon and anise and fried until lacy-edged, a Dutch-Caribbean morning treat.
Curaçaoan · easy · serves 4
prep 15 min · cook 15 min
~519 cal · 9g protein · 87g carbs · 16g fat · 3g fiber · 40g sugars · 3g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Arepa di pampuna are the sweet pumpkin pancakes of Curacao, a cherished Dutch-Caribbean breakfast and snack quite distinct from the savoury corn arepas of the South American mainland. They reflect the island's own creole kitchen.
Mashed pumpkin is beaten into a batter spiced with cinnamon and anise and sweetened, then spooned into hot oil where the edges fry lacy and golden while the centre stays soft and moist. The pumpkin gives them colour, sweetness, and a tender crumb.
Eaten warm, dusted with sugar or drizzled with syrup, they are a comforting morning treat. Arepa di pampuna are small, sweet emblems of Curacaoan home cooking, where Dutch, African, and Caribbean influences meet on the breakfast plate.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian and 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
2 cups pumpkin, grated or mashed
1.5 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp grated nutmeg
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup raisins (optional)
to finish icing sugar, to dust
1/4 cup
Instructions
1
If using raw pumpkin, simmer the grated flesh briefly until soft, then drain well and cool.
2
Beat the eggs (or flax) frothy, then stir in the pumpkin puree, vanilla and milk until smooth. Combine the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, cinnamon and nutmeg separately and add all at once, mixing lightly, with the raisins if using. Rest the batter a few minutes.
✎ Chef’s note
Mix lightly and let the batter sit: overworking gives a tough pancake. Arepa di pampuna is denser than a North American pancake and only lightly sweet, which is why it works equally as a Sunday breakfast snack or a side at lunch.
3
Heat a little oil in a pan and drop in spoonfuls, spreading into small rounds.
4
Fry until golden and set on both sides, then drain, dust lightly with icing sugar, and serve warm with coffee.
Willemstad Dutch-Caribbean home cooking.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Willemstad. The account of keshi yena's origin is that enslaved people in the Dutch West Indies filled the discarded rinds of Gouda and Edam with meat scraps, and keshi is simply Papiamento for the Dutch kaas. Aruba makes it as much as Curacao does, so it is shared rather than local to this harbour.
🗺️
Curaçao. The ABC islands sit in the southern Caribbean dry zone and get around sixty centimetres of rain a year, which is closer to a desert than to the wet tropics further north. That is why so much of the pantry keeps or arrives by ship, hard Dutch cheese and salt cod among it, and why funchi, a stiff cornmeal, does the work of a starch that does not need irrigating.
🌍
North America. The most consequential technique on this continent is nixtamalisation, cooking maize with lime or wood ash. It loosens the skins, makes the dough that becomes tortillas and tamales, and frees up niacin the body cannot otherwise absorb, which is why maize spread around the world without the technique and took pellagra with it.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Curaçao
Keshi YenaA shell of Edam or Gouda cheese stuffed with spiced chicken, olives, capers, and raisins, then baked until molten.
KadushiA thick, green cactus soup with salted fish and okra, a truly local Curaçaoan dish born of the arid island.
Bolo PretuA dark, dense fruitcake of rum-soaked fruit and browning, the celebration cake of Curaçao and the Dutch Antilles.
Browse all Curaçao recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Blender, Whisk.
Storing it: Best fresh and hot. Keep batter covered in the fridge for up to a day, and rewarm cooked ones in a dry pan.
Make it a Curaçao meal
Awa di LamunchiDrink
Bolo PretuDessert
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Cuisine
Diet
Frequently asked questions
What is Arepa di Pampuna?
Sweet Curaçaoan pumpkin pancakes, spiced with cinnamon and anise and fried until lacy-edged, a Dutch-Caribbean morning treat.
Where does Arepa di Pampuna come from?
Arepa di Pampuna is a Curaçaoan dish from Willemstad, Curaçao.
Can Arepa di Pampuna be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Arepa di Pampuna 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 Arepa di Pampuna 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 Arepa di Pampuna take to make?
About 30 minutes total (15 minutes prep, 15 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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