🥗 STARTER
Kokoda (Fijian Coconut Ceviche)
Fresh fish "cooked" in lime, then mellowed in rich coconut cream with chili, onion, and tomato.
Fijian · easy · serves 4
prep 30 min · cook 0 min · plus 2 h hands-off time
~323 cal · 24g protein · 14g carbs · 21g fat · 3g fiber · 6g sugars · 18g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Kokoda is Fiji's raw-fish dish, the islands' own answer to and a fixture of feasts and family lunches across Viti Levu and the outer islands. Fresh reef fish is diced and left to firm in lime or lemon juice, the acid gently curing it until the flesh turns opaque and silky.
What sets kokoda apart is coconut. Once the fish has , it is folded into thick, fresh-pressed , called lolo, which softens the sharp citrus into something rich and mellow. Tomato, onion, chili, and often cucumber add colour, crunch, and a little heat.
It is served cold, traditionally in a coconut half-shell, as a starter or a light main on a hot day. Cooling, bright, and luxuriously creamy, kokoda tastes of the reef and the palm at once, and it is one of the flavours Fijians miss most when they are far from home.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally gluten-, dairy-, 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
- 1 lb sashimi-grade firm white fish (mahi-mahi, snapper), diced
- 3/4 cup fresh lime juice
- 1 cup
- 1/2 red onion, finely diced
- 1 tomato, seeded and diced
- 1 red chili, minced
- 1/2 cucumber, diced
- a handful cilantro or green onion
- 1 tsp sea salt
Instructions
- 1Toss the diced fish with the lime juice and salt in a glass bowl. Cover and chill 2-4 hours, stirring once, until opaque throughout. (Tofu/coconut: 30 minutes is plenty.)
- 2Drain off about half the lime juice.
- 3Fold in the coconut cream, onion, tomato, chili, and cucumber.
- 4Chill 30 more minutes so the flavors settle into each other.
- 5Serve cold, in coconut shells if you're feeling festive, topped with cilantro.
Viti Levu village feast tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Viti Levu. Fiji's main island, Viti Levu, cooks the lovo earth-oven feast, coconut-marinated kokoda, and Indo-Fijian curries. Taro, cassava, and reef fish anchor a table of two cultures.
🗺️
Fiji. Fijian cuisine is defined by the reef and the coconut, kokoda (fish 'cooked' in citrus and coconut cream), taro, cassava, and the earth-oven lovo feast. Indigenous iTaukei and Indo-Fijian curry traditions meet across three hundred islands.
🌍
Oceania. The staple crops here were carried on purpose. Lapita voyagers moving east from roughly three thousand years ago brought taro, yam, banana, breadfruit and coconut with them along with pigs and chickens, because most of the islands they settled had almost nothing edible growing on them. The earth oven travelled too, as umu, imu, hangi, lovo, mumu, motu and um.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Fiji
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VakaloloDense baked cassava under a dark coconut caramel, one of Fiji's oldest sweets, cut into sticky squares.
Fiji Roti ParcelA soft griddle roti wrapped around spiced potato-and-pea curry, the everyday one-handed lunch of Fiji's towns.
Browse all Fiji recipes →
Good to know
Storing it: Best assembled just before serving. Prep the components ahead and dress at the last moment so it stays crisp.
Make it a Fiji meal
Kava (Yaqona)Drink
VakaloloDessert
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Cuisine
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Frequently asked questions
What is Kokoda (Fijian Coconut Ceviche)?
Fresh fish "cooked" in lime, then mellowed in rich coconut cream with chili, onion, and tomato.
Where does Kokoda (Fijian Coconut Ceviche) come from?
Kokoda (Fijian Coconut Ceviche) is a Fijian dish from Viti Levu, Fiji.
Can Kokoda (Fijian Coconut Ceviche) be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Kokoda (Fijian Coconut Ceviche) 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 Kokoda (Fijian Coconut Ceviche) 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 Kokoda (Fijian Coconut Ceviche) take to make?
About 2 h 30 min in all: 30 minutes prep and 0 minutes cooking, plus 2 h of hands-off waiting the method needs, serving 4.
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