Recipe
🍳 BREAKFAST
Fried Bakes with Zaboca
Golden fried bakes split and filled with seasoned mashed avocado (zaboca), a simple, satisfying vegan breakfast from the Nature Isle.
Dominican (Dominica) · easy · serves 4
prep 20 min · cook 15 min
~539 cal · 10g protein · 73g carbs · 24g fat · 8g fiber · 5g sugars · 3g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Fried bakes with zaboca is a simple, satisfying vegan breakfast from Dominica, the Nature Isle, that pairs the Caribbean's fried bread with the island's abundant avocados. Zaboca is the local word for avocado.
Bakes are soft rounds of dough fried until puffed and golden, crisp outside and pillowy within. They are split open and filled with seasoned mashed avocado, brightened with a little lime, onion, and pepper, so the cool, creamy zaboca melts into the warm bread.
Cheap, plant-based, and genuinely satisfying, it makes the most of what grows readily on the island. Fried bakes with zaboca is unpretentious Dominican morning food, of how far good bread and a ripe avocado can go.
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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
2.5 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp sugar
3/4 cup warm water
2 ripe avocado (zaboca)
1 lime
1/2 onion
to taste hot pepper
3 cups , for frying
to taste salt
Instructions
1
Mix the flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt with warm water into a soft dough; rest 15 minutes.
2
Shape into rounds, flatten slightly, and fry in hot oil until puffed and golden on both sides.
3
Mash the avocado with lime juice, finely chopped onion, hot pepper, and salt.
4
Split the warm bakes and fill generously with the seasoned zaboca to serve.
Dominica Nature Isle home cooking.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Roseau. Dominica is steep, wet and forested, and the phrase for what grows there is ground provisions: dasheen, yam, tannia, breadfruit and green banana, boiled and serving as the bulk of a meal. River fish and crayfish come out of the many rivers running off the interior.
🗺️
Dominica. Dominica, the 'Nature Isle,' cooks close to the land: crab callaloo, made the official national dish in 2013, and one-pot stews rich with root vegetables and coconut. Fresh, green, and Creole, its table reflects a lush volcanic island.
🌍
North America. Almost every regional cooking here records who arrived and on what terms. Enslaved West Africans brought rice, okra, black-eyed peas and the techniques behind Lowcountry and Creole food; Chinese railway labour and later Italian, Jewish, Mexican and Vietnamese arrivals built the way the cities eat; and Indigenous foodways sit underneath all of it.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Dominica
Callaloo and CrabDasheen (taro) leaves simmered with coconut, aromatics, and land crab into a lush green one-pot.
Dominica Guava CheeseA firm, chewy guava paste cooked down and cut into sugared squares, a confection traditional to Dominica.
Dominica BouyonA thick one-pot of ground provisions, dumplings, dasheen leaves, and salt beef simmered with coconut and Caribbean herbs.
Browse all Dominica 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 Dominica meal
Bush TeaDrink
Dominica Guava CheeseDessert
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Frequently asked questions
What is Fried Bakes with Zaboca?
Golden fried bakes split and filled with seasoned mashed avocado (zaboca), a simple, satisfying vegan breakfast from the Nature Isle.
Where does Fried Bakes with Zaboca come from?
Fried Bakes with Zaboca is a Dominican (Dominica) dish from Roseau, Dominica.
Can Fried Bakes with Zaboca be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Fried Bakes with Zaboca 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 Fried Bakes with Zaboca 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 Fried Bakes with Zaboca take to make?
About 35 minutes total (20 minutes prep, 15 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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