Recipe
🍳 BREAKFAST
Espageti Ayisyen
Haiti's famous breakfast spaghetti tossed with smoky herring, onions, peppers, and a hit of epis and ketchup, savory morning comfort.
Haitian · easy · serves 4
prep 10 min · cook 20 min
~522 cal · 21g protein · 70g carbs · 18g fat · 4g fiber · 5g sugars · 3g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Espageti is Haiti's famous breakfast spaghetti, a distinctive morning dish that turns pasta into a savoury, satisfying start to the day. It is everyday food, sold from street vendors and made in home kitchens across the country.
The spaghetti is tossed with smoky, salty herring (or hot dogs, or both), onions, and peppers, all built on epis, the green herb-and-garlic seasoning base at the heart of Haitian cooking, and finished with a signature squeeze of ketchup. The result is savoury, a little spicy, and comforting.
Filling and cheap, it powers a Haitian morning with real flavour. Espageti is an unexpected but deeply loved way to start the day, resourceful and boldly seasoned.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally 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
12 oz spaghetti
6 oz smoked herring, flaked
1 onion
1 bell pepper
2 tbsp epis (green seasoning)
Hard to find? parsley, scallion, garlic, thyme and a little bell pepper, blended - a quick stand-in for the Haitian blend; every household's epis differs anyway, so make extra and keep a jar
3 cloves garlic
3 tbsp ketchup
1 tbsp tomato paste
3 tbsp
to taste
to taste salt
Instructions
1
Boil the spaghetti until just tender, drain, and toss with a little oil so it does not stick.
2
Sauté the onion, pepper, garlic, and epis in oil until soft, then add the flaked herring.
3
Stir in the ketchup and tomato paste and cook until jammy and fragrant.
4
Fold the spaghetti through the sauce until well coated, adjust heat and salt, and serve hot.
Port-au-Prince home breakfast.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Ouest (Port-au-Prince). Epis is made ahead and kept in the fridge: parsley, thyme, scallion, garlic, peppers and citrus blitzed into a green paste that starts nearly every pot. Pikliz is its opposite number, cabbage, carrot and scotch bonnet left in vinegar until they sharpen, spooned over fried food to cut the fat.
🗺️
Haiti. Griot earns the twice-cooked description: pork marinated in sour orange and epis, the green herb base of garlic, peppers, parsley and thyme that starts most Haitian pots, then simmered until tender and fried until the edges go crisp. Pikliz beside it is cabbage, carrot and scotch bonnet left in vinegar, and it is there to cut the fat.
🌍
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 Haiti
Diri Kolé ak PwaHaiti’s national rice and beans: red beans cooked into coconut-scented rice with thyme, clove, and Scotch bonnet.
Soup JoumouA golden squash soup with beef, pasta, and root vegetables, Haiti's soup of freedom, eaten every New Year's Day.
Pen PatatA dense baked pudding of sweet potato, banana, and coconut milk, warmly spiced, a Haitian Sunday sweet.
Browse all Haiti recipes →
Good to know
Storing it: Best fresh. Leftovers keep 2 days refrigerated; loosen with a splash of water or oil as you reheat so they do not clump.
Make it a Haiti meal
KremasDrink
Pen PatatDessert
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Cuisine
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Frequently asked questions
What is Espageti Ayisyen?
Haiti's famous breakfast spaghetti tossed with smoky herring, onions, peppers, and a hit of epis and ketchup, savory morning comfort.
Where does Espageti Ayisyen come from?
Espageti Ayisyen is a Haitian dish from Ouest (Port-au-Prince), Haiti.
Can Espageti Ayisyen be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Espageti Ayisyen 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 Espageti Ayisyen 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 Espageti Ayisyen take to make?
About 30 minutes total (10 minutes prep, 20 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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