Africa → Côte d’Ivoire → Abidjan (Lagunes)
🍢 SNACK
Alloco with Tomato-Chili Sauce
Golden fried sweet plantains with a punchy tomato-onion-chili sauce, Abidjan’s favourite street snack.
Ivorian · easy · serves 3
prep 10 min · cook 20 min
~442 cal · 4g protein · 86g carbs · 12g fat · 8g fiber · 41g sugars · 2g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Alloco is Abidjan's favorite street snack: ripe sweet cut into chunks and fried in hot oil until the sugars into a deep gold, crisp at the edges and meltingly soft inside. It is sold on nearly every corner of the Ivorian city, scooped hot from bubbling pans by women known as 'alloco mamas' who have made it their trade.
What lifts it from simple fried fruit is the sauce it's served with, a punchy relish of tomatoes, onion, and fiery chili that brings acid and heat against the 's sweetness. Often a fried egg or grilled fish is added to turn the snack into a full, cheap, satisfying meal.
Alloco is democratic food, eaten by students, workers, and families alike as an afternoon bite or a casual dinner. In Côte d'Ivoire it is more than a snack; it is a small daily pleasure and a fixture of the country's vibrant, sociable street-food culture.
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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 3
- 4 ripe (yellow with black spots), thick diagonal slices
- 1 cup , for frying
- 3 tomatoes, chopped
- 1 red onion, half diced, half raw rings
- 1 or habanero, minced
- 1 tsp fresh ginger, grated
- to taste vegetable bouillon seasoning, or salt
Instructions
- 1Fry the plantain slices in hot oil in batches, 3-4 minutes per side, until deep amber with caramelized edges. Drain and salt.
- 2Pour off all but 2 tbsp oil. Fry the diced onion, ginger, and chili 2 minutes.
- 3Add the tomatoes and cook down 8 minutes into a rough, fiery sauce. Season boldly.
- 4Serve the hot plantains with the sauce over or beside, topped with raw onion rings, and eat immediately, standing up if you want authenticity.
Abidjan maquis street tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Abidjan (Lagunes). The maquis is a format more than a restaurant: open air, plastic chairs, a grill and a short list. Garba, attieke with fried tuna, onion and chilli, is the standing street plate here, and the older partner for attieke was kedjenou, chicken cooked sealed in a pot with almost no added liquid.
🗺️
Côte d’Ivoire. Ivorian food is West African comfort, attiéké (fermented cassava couscous), grilled fish with fiery pepper, and kedjenou chicken slow-cooked in its own juices. Cassava, plantain, and groundnut anchor a bold, everyday table.
🌍
Africa. The structure repeats across most of the continent: one starch and one sauce. A grain or root is cooked stiff, torn or rolled by hand, and used to carry a stew of leaves, groundnut, okra or fish, usually from a shared bowl and with the right hand. UNESCO listings have followed that logic, inscribing couscous in 2020 as a shared Maghreb tradition and Ivorian attieke in 2024.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Côte d’Ivoire
Kedjenou de PouletChicken slow-cooked sealed in a pot with peppers, tomato, and aromatics, with no added water, cooking in all its own juices.
Bouillie d'ArachideA creamy Ivorian peanut-and-millet breakfast porridge sweetened and scented with nutmeg.
Attiéké PoissonFermented cassava couscous served with grilled fish and a fresh onion-tomato relish, Côte d'Ivoire's national plate.
Browse all Côte d’Ivoire 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 Côte d’Ivoire meal
GnamankoudjiDrink
Gâteau Coco (Fried Coconut Cakes)Dessert
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Cuisine
Diet
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Frequently asked questions
What is Alloco with Tomato-Chili Sauce?
Golden fried sweet plantains with a punchy tomato-onion-chili sauce, Abidjan’s favourite street snack.
Where does Alloco with Tomato-Chili Sauce come from?
Alloco with Tomato-Chili Sauce is an Ivorian dish from Abidjan (Lagunes), Côte d’Ivoire.
Can Alloco with Tomato-Chili Sauce be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Alloco with Tomato-Chili Sauce 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 Alloco with Tomato-Chili Sauce 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 Alloco with Tomato-Chili Sauce take to make?
About 30 minutes total (10 minutes prep, 20 minutes cooking), serving 3.
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