Recipe
🍳 BREAKFAST
Farata with Butter Bean Curry
Flaky griddled flatbread (farata) served with a light butter-bean curry, a popular Mauritian breakfast.
Mauritian · medium · serves 4
prep 25 min · cook 30 min
~1621 cal · 13g protein · 80g carbs · 141g fat · 4g fiber · 4g sugars · 88g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Farata with butter bean curry is a popular Mauritian breakfast pairing, farata (the island's flaky, griddled flatbread, cousin to the Indian paratha) served with a light, mildly spiced curry of butter beans.
The farata is made by folding and griddling the dough so it turns out layered and tender, ideal for tearing and scooping up the creamy bean curry. The curry itself is gentle and comforting, spiced with the island's Creole-Indian palate.
Sold at breakfast stalls in Port Louis and made at home, this combination is affordable and filling, an everyday Indo-Mauritian breakfast.
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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
3 cups flour (for the farata)
3 cups butter (lima) beans, cooked
1 onion
3 cloves garlic
1 tbsp ginger
2 tomato
1 tbsp curry powder
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp thyme
as needed oil
to taste salt
Instructions
1
Make a soft dough with the flour, salt, oil, and hot water, then rest it 30 minutes.
2
Roll each piece thin, brush the surface with oil and dust with flour, fold it in thirds like a letter, then oil and fold that strip in thirds again to make a square. Roll the square out flat.
✎ Chef’s note
The oil-and-flour between each fold is what separates the layers. Roll the folded square gently so you flatten it without pressing the layers back together.
3
Griddle the faratas until blistered and flaky, then keep them warm.
4
Fry the onion, garlic, and ginger, then add the curry powder, cumin, and tomato and cook to a base.
5
Add the butter beans and a little water and simmer into a light curry.
6
Serve the torn farata with the butter bean curry.
Port Louis tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Port Louis. Port Louis is a Creole crossroads, where Indian, Chinese, African, and French cooking meet. Dholl puri, a soft split-pea flatbread rolled around bean curry and chili, outsells everything on the street, alongside rougaille tomato stews and octopus curry.
🗺️
Mauritius. Mauritius had no indigenous population at all, so the melting-pot description is literal rather than decorative: everyone on the island descends from someone brought or arrived, whether enslaved from Africa and Madagascar, indentured from India, migrant from China, or colonial from France and Britain. The cooking is the record of that, four traditions using the same tomatoes, chillies and coriander.
🌍
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 Mauritius
Dholl PuriFeather-soft flatbreads with ground split peas hidden in the dough, folded around bean curry and chutney.
RougailleA Creole tomato stew of Mauritius, simmered with thyme, ginger, and curry leaf around fish or sausage.
Mine FriteWok-fried egg noodles tossed with chicken, prawns, and vegetables in a savory sauce, Mauritius's favorite street lunch.
Browse all Mauritius 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 Mauritius meal
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NapolitaineDessert
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Frequently asked questions
What is Farata with Butter Bean Curry?
Flaky griddled flatbread (farata) served with a light butter-bean curry, a popular Mauritian breakfast.
Where does Farata with Butter Bean Curry come from?
Farata with Butter Bean Curry is a Mauritian dish from Port Louis, Mauritius.
Can Farata with Butter Bean Curry be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Farata with Butter Bean Curry 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 Farata with Butter Bean Curry 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 Farata with Butter Bean Curry take to make?
About 55 minutes total (25 minutes prep, 30 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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