North America → Curaçao → Willemstad
🥔 SIDE
Tutu (Curaçao Cornmeal with Black-Eyed Peas)
A thick, golden cornmeal mash cooked with soft black-eyed peas, coconut milk, garlic and a little sugar, finished with butter and served with fried fish, saltfish, stoba or cheese.
Curaçaoan · medium · serves 8
prep 10 min · cook 70 min · plus 8 h hands-off time
~473 cal · 17g protein · 80g carbs · 13g fat · 9g fiber · 24g sugars · 8g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
↓ Jump to Recipe
AI-generated illustration
Tutu is one of Curaçao's favourite starchy side dishes, taken in place of rice or bread and served with fried fish, stewed saltfish (bakijow), stoba or simply a slice of cheese. It is a sibling of funchi, the island's cornmeal staple, and both come from the African roots of Curaçaoan cooking.
What sets tutu apart is the black-eyed peas. They are cooked until soft with garlic, then salt, sugar and go in, and cornmeal is added a little at a time while the cook stirs hard with a wooden spoon, folding the peas through the thickening mash. It takes about twenty minutes of steady stirring. A knob of butter finishes it.
The result is thick enough to hold its shape, golden and speckled with peas, gently sweet against salty accompaniments. On Aruba the same dish is made too, and many families mash some of the peas so the tutu turns creamier.
Saved recipes and passport stamps are kept on this device. Sign in to keep them across your devices and leave reviews.
Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian and gluten-, 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 8
- 450 g (1 lb) dried black-eyed peas
- 6 cups (1.5 l) water, plus more for soaking
- 2 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1 tsp salt
- 3/4 cup sugar, use less for a less sweet tutu
- 1 cup
- 1 3/4 cups (250 g) fine yellow cornmeal
- 2 tbsp butter
Instructions
- 1Rinse the black-eyed peas, cover them with plenty of cold water and leave them to soak for at least 8 hours or overnight. Drain.
- 2Put the peas in a large heavy pot with the 6 cups of water and the garlic, bring to the boil and simmer for 40 to 50 minutes, until the peas are soft. Do not drain.
- 3Stir in the salt, sugar and coconut milk and bring back to a simmer.
- 4Add the cornmeal a little at a time, stirring constantly and firmly with a wooden spoon so no lumps form and the peas fold through the mash. Keep cooking and stirring over low heat for about 20 minutes, until the cornmeal is cooked and the tutu is thick and pulls away from the sides of the pot.✎ Chef’s noteSprinkle the cornmeal in slowly. Tipped in all at once it forms lumps that never cook out.
- 5Stir in the butter, then turn the tutu into a buttered bowl to shape it, or spoon it straight onto plates. Serve hot with fried fish, saltfish, stoba or cheese.
Curaçaoan tradition (also Aruba).
Ratings & reviews
Cooked it? Rate this dish:
No account needed. Sign in to leave a full review with a comment.
Cooked it?
Kept on this device, no account needed. Sign in to leave a review and keep your passport across your devices.
No reviews yet, be the first to cook it.
🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Willemstad. Funchi is the cornmeal that goes under everything, stirred stiff and turned out of the pan, and Papiamento names most of the rest: stoba for the stews, karni stoba with beef, kabritu stoba with goat. The island is dry and small, so the sea, the salt cod trade and the Dutch pantry did the supplying.
🗺️
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. North America's table began with Indigenous foodways, the "three sisters" of corn, beans, and squash, plus chiles, tomatoes, and cacao, then layered on colonial, African, and immigrant influences. From Mexico's UNESCO-recognized cuisine to the Cajun and Creole pots of Louisiana and the fiery jerk of the Caribbean, the region turns ancient staples into something new. Barbecue, tacos, gumbo, and mole all carry stories of migration and adaptation.
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.
Arepa di PampunaSweet Curaçaoan pumpkin pancakes, spiced with cinnamon and anise and fried until lacy-edged, a Dutch-Caribbean morning treat.
KadushiA thick, green cactus soup with salted fish and okra, a truly local Curaçaoan dish born of the arid island.
Browse all Curaçao recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Pot or saucepan.
Storing it: Thickens as it sits. Reheat with extra water or milk to loosen, and keep 2 to 3 days refrigerated.
Make it a Curaçao meal
Awa di LamunchiDrink
Bolo PretuDessert
Similar dishes from around the world
Funge (Angolan Cassava Flour Porridge)Angola
Bogobe jwa Lerotse (Sorghum Porridge with Melon)Botswana
Xerém (Cape Verdean Coarse Cornmeal)Cape Verde
Gozo (Central African Cassava Flour Dough)Central African Republic
Lituma (Congolese Mashed Plantain)DR Congo
Foutou Banane (Ivorian Pounded Plantain and Cassava)Côte d’Ivoire
Cuisine
Diet
Frequently asked questions
What is Tutu (Curaçao Cornmeal with Black-Eyed Peas)?
A thick, golden cornmeal mash cooked with soft black-eyed peas, coconut milk, garlic and a little sugar, finished with butter and served with fried fish, saltfish, stoba or cheese.
Where does Tutu (Curaçao Cornmeal with Black-Eyed Peas) come from?
Tutu (Curaçao Cornmeal with Black-Eyed Peas) is a Curaçaoan dish from Willemstad, Curaçao.
Can Tutu (Curaçao Cornmeal with Black-Eyed Peas) be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Tutu (Curaçao Cornmeal with Black-Eyed Peas) recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions. Treat the substitutions as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Tutu (Curaçao Cornmeal with Black-Eyed Peas) 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 still count coconut as a tree nut to be cautious, although the FDA stopped listing it as one in 2025), 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 Tutu (Curaçao Cornmeal with Black-Eyed Peas) take to make?
About 9 h 20 min in all: 10 minutes prep and 70 minutes cooking, plus 8 h of hands-off waiting the method needs, serving 8.
Get the Sunday Spin
One dish from somewhere in the world, in your inbox every Sunday. No spam, just dinner inspiration you can cook that day.