Recipe
🍽️ DINNER
Rougaille
A Creole tomato stew of Mauritius, simmered with thyme, ginger, and curry leaf around fish or sausage.
Mauritian · easy · serves 4
prep 15 min · cook 40 min
~676 cal · 23g protein · 20g carbs · 56g fat · 4g fiber · 10g sugars · 18g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Rougaille is a cornerstone of Mauritian Creole cooking, a bright tomato-based stew simmered with onion, garlic, ginger, thyme, and , built around fish, sausage, eggs, or other proteins. Its name and technique trace to French colonial roots, but the spicing is thoroughly Mauritian, reflecting the island's blended heritage.
The sauce is fresh and tangy, the tomatoes cooked down with aromatics until thick and fragrant, with just enough chili for warmth. It is a versatile everyday dish, adapted to whatever protein is on hand, from salted fish to smoked sausage.
Served with rice in Port Louis and across the island, rougaille is a weeknight stew that appears on tables in every Mauritian community.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally gluten-, dairy-, egg- and nut-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
1.5 lb firm fish or smoked sausage
5 ripe tomatoes
2 tbsp tomato paste
2 onion
4 cloves garlic
1 tbsp ginger
1 tsp thyme
a sprig
1 chili
a handful fresh cilantro, chopped
3 tbsp oil
to taste salt
Instructions
1
Soften the onion, garlic, and ginger in the oil, then add thyme and curry leaves.
2
Add the tomatoes and tomato paste and cook down into a thick, glossy sauce.
3
Nestle in the fish (or tofu and mushrooms) and chili.
4
Simmer gently until cooked through and the sauce is rich.
5
Season, scatter the chopped cilantro over the top, and serve with rice.
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. Dholl puri comes in pairs, thin flatbreads stuffed with ground yellow split peas and served folded around bean curry, rougaille and chilli paste, and it arrived with Indian indentured labourers in the nineteenth century, the same history that gave Trinidad its doubles and Fiji its curries. Gateaux piments, the split-pea chilli fritters, are the other thing sold at every corner.
🌍
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 Mauritius
Dholl PuriFeather-soft flatbreads with ground split peas hidden in the dough, folded around bean curry and chutney.
Farata with Butter Bean CurryFlaky griddled flatbread (farata) served with a light butter-bean curry, a popular Mauritian breakfast.
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
Storing it: Stews and braises keep 3 to 4 days refrigerated and often taste better the next day. Reheat gently, adding a splash of water if it has thickened.
Make it a Mauritius meal
AloudaDrink
NapolitaineDessert
Dholl PuriLunch
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Frequently asked questions
What is Rougaille?
A Creole tomato stew of Mauritius, simmered with thyme, ginger, and curry leaf around fish or sausage.
Where does Rougaille come from?
Rougaille is a Mauritian dish from Port Louis, Mauritius.
Can Rougaille be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Rougaille 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 Rougaille 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 Rougaille take to make?
About 55 minutes total (15 minutes prep, 40 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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