Recipe
🍰 DESSERT
Koba Akondro
A dense steamed cake of banana, ground peanuts, and rice flour wrapped in banana leaf, a Malagasy street sweet.
Malagasy · medium · serves 8
prep 20 min · cook 120 min
~567 cal · 15g protein · 84g carbs · 22g fat · 9g fiber · 41g sugars · 3g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Koba akondro is one of Madagascar's best-known traditional sweets, a dense, moist cake of banana, peanuts, and rice flour, wrapped in banana leaf and slowly steamed or boiled. Sold in slices from street vendors, it is an everyday treat with deep roots in Malagasy food culture.
Ripe bananas are mashed and mixed with ground roasted peanuts, rice flour, and sugar into a thick batter, which is packed into banana leaves and cooked slowly for hours until firm and set. Traditionally the whole thing is cooked as a long cylinder and sliced into rounds that reveal a dense, fudgy, nutty interior. Sweet, filling, and fragrant with banana, it is Malagasy comfort in a slice.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian, vegan and 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 8
5 ripe bananas, mashed
1 1/2 cups roasted peanuts, ground
1 1/2 cups rice flour
3/4 cup sugar
6 pieces banana leaves
Instructions
1
Mash the bananas and mix with the ground peanuts, rice flour, and sugar into a thick batter.
2
Pack the batter into softened banana leaves and wrap into tight parcels or a log.
✎ Chef’s note
Wrap the parcels snugly and cook them long and slow; koba needs hours of gentle steaming to set into its dense, fudgy texture.
3
Steam or boil slowly for about 2 hours until firm and set.
4
Cool, then unwrap and slice into rounds.
Malagasy street-sweet tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Analamanga (Antananarivo). The green that makes romazava what it is is anamalaho, also sold as bredes mafana, which contains spilanthol and leaves a light tingling numbness on the tongue. Rice is not a side dish here either: the average Malagasy eats around 150 kilos of it a year, more than half of daily calories.
🗺️
Madagascar. Madagascar eats more rice per person than almost anywhere, served with romazava (herb-and-meat stew) and ravitoto (pounded cassava leaves). Vanilla, cloves, and Southeast Asian roots reflect the island's unique Austronesian-African heritage.
🌍
Africa. Much of what reads as timeless African cooking is younger than the Atlantic crossings. Maize, cassava, groundnut, chilli and tomato all arrived from the Americas after 1500 and pushed older crops aside; millet, sorghum, teff, yam and fonio are the ones that were already here, and the map still shows the join.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Madagascar
RomazavaMadagascar’s national broth: zebu beef and mixed leafy greens with ginger and tomato, ladled over rice.
Mofo GasySlightly sweet fermented rice-flour cakes griddled in round moulds, "Malagasy bread" for breakfast.
Ravitoto sy HenakisoaPounded cassava leaves slow-cooked with pork, garlic, and ginger, one of Madagascar's best-known dishes.
Browse all Madagascar recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Steamer.
Storing it: Keeps 2 to 3 days refrigerated. Resteam or warm through gently to serve.
Make it a Madagascar meal
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RanovolaDrink
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Frequently asked questions
What is Koba Akondro?
A dense steamed cake of banana, ground peanuts, and rice flour wrapped in banana leaf, a Malagasy street sweet.
Where does Koba Akondro come from?
Koba Akondro is a Malagasy dish from Analamanga (Antananarivo), Madagascar.
Can Koba Akondro be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Koba Akondro 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 Koba Akondro 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 Koba Akondro take to make?
About 140 minutes total (20 minutes prep, 120 minutes cooking), serving 8.
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