Recipe
🥙 LUNCH
Fiji Roti Parcel
A soft griddle roti wrapped around spiced potato-and-pea curry, the everyday one-handed lunch of Fiji's towns.
Indo-Fijian · medium · serves 4
prep 30 min · cook 25 min
~450 cal · 10g protein · 76g carbs · 11g fat · 6g fiber · 4g sugars · 1g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
↓ Jump to Recipe
AI-generated illustration
Half of Fiji's kitchen came from India. Indentured labourers, brought to work the sugar-cane fields from the 1870s, carried their spices and their flatbreads with them, and their cooking became inseparable from Fijian food over the generations that followed.
The roti parcel is the everyday expression of that heritage: a soft roti folded around a simple curry and rolled into a handheld package. It is sold from lunch bars and market stalls across Viti Levu, cheap, filling, and eaten on the move.
The filling shifts with the cook and the day, dhal, chicken, or, most commonly, a plain potato-and-pea curry. What stays constant is the tarka, the frying of the spices in hot oil that gives even the humblest vegetable curry its backbone.
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, vegan and dairy-, 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
2 cups all-purpose flour
3 tbsp oil
1 tsp salt
3 medium potatoes, diced
1 cup frozen peas
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp fresh ginger, grated
1 tomato, chopped
2 tbsp curry powder
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
1 handful fresh coriander, chopped
Instructions
1
Make the roti dough: mix the flour, salt, 1 tbsp of the oil, and enough warm water to form a soft dough. Cover and rest 20 minutes.
2
Soften the onion, garlic, and ginger in the remaining 2 tbsp oil, then add the curry powder and turmeric and fry 30 seconds until fragrant.
✎ Chef’s note
Frying the dry spices in oil first, the step cooks here call the tarka, is what gives the curry depth. Raw curry powder stirred into water just tastes dusty.
3
Add the potatoes, tomato, and a splash of water. Cover and cook until the potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes.
4
Stir in the peas and cook 3 minutes more, then season with salt and fold through the coriander.
5
Divide the rested dough, roll each piece thin, and cook on a dry hot griddle until puffed and speckled, about 1 minute a side.
6
Spoon curry onto each hot roti, fold into a parcel, and eat by hand.
Indo-Fijian lunch-bar cooking.
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
📍
Viti Levu. The western side of the island is the sugar belt, and it is where Indo-Fijian cooking is densest, in Nadi and Lautoka: roti cooked on a tawa, dhal, and curries built on locally ground masala. That is not a separate cuisine sitting alongside the iTaukei one but part of the same everyday, sold from the same markets.
🗺️
Fiji. Half of what Fiji eats arrived with sugar. The first indentured labourers from India landed at Levuka in May 1879 and more than sixty thousand followed over the next thirty-seven years to work the cane; their descendants' curries, roti and dhal are now ordinary Fijian food, sold beside taro and cassava rather than kept in a separate cuisine.
🌍
Oceania. Oceania spans Australia, New Zealand, and thousands of Pacific islands, where the ocean and the coconut palm define the pantry. Traditional Polynesian and Melanesian cooking centers on root crops, taro, yam, cassava, and sweet potato, slow-cooked in earth ovens (the umu or mumu) alongside fresh reef fish and rich coconut cream. Modern Australian and Māori kitchens blend these deep roots with waves of Asian and European influence.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Fiji
Kokoda (Fijian Coconut Ceviche)Fresh fish "cooked" in lime, then mellowed in rich coconut cream with chili, onion, and tomato.
BabakauPuffy, faintly sweet Fijian fried bread, crisp outside and pillowy within, torn and dunked in sweet milky tea for breakfast.
VakaloloDense baked cassava under a dark coconut caramel, one of Fiji's oldest sweets, cut into sticky squares.
Browse all Fiji recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Griddle or flat pan.
Storing it: Best the day it is made. Wrap well and refresh in a warm oven, or freeze and reheat straight from frozen.
Make it a Fiji meal
Kava (Yaqona)Drink
VakaloloDessert
Fijian Chicken CurryDinner
Similar dishes from around the world
Bolani (Stuffed Flatbread)Afghanistan
Dholl PuriMauritius
LángosHungary
Puran PoliIndia
Brezn (Bavarian Soft Pretzel)Germany
Zagorski ŠtrukliCroatia
Cuisine
Diet
Vegetarian Recipes from Around the World
Vegan Recipes from Around the World
Dairy-Free Recipes from Around the World
Nut-Free Recipes from Around the World
Egg-Free Recipes from Around the World
Pork-Free Recipes from Around the World
Vegan Lunches from Around the World
Vegetarian Lunches from Around the World
Dairy-Free Lunches from Around the World
Nut-Free Lunches from Around the World
Egg-Free Lunches from Around the World
Frequently asked questions
What is Fiji Roti Parcel?
A soft griddle roti wrapped around spiced potato-and-pea curry, the everyday one-handed lunch of Fiji's towns.
Where does Fiji Roti Parcel come from?
Fiji Roti Parcel is a Indo-Fijian dish from Viti Levu, Fiji.
Can Fiji Roti Parcel be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Fiji Roti Parcel 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 Fiji Roti Parcel 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 Fiji Roti Parcel take to make?
About 55 minutes total (30 minutes prep, 25 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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.