Oceania → New Zealand → Waikato
🥔 SIDE
Hāngī Stuffing
Bread crumbled with onion, grated carrot, mixed herbs, lemon and melted butter, wrapped in a foil parcel and baked until steamy and golden at the edges, the stuffing that goes with a hāngī.
Māori · easy · serves 6
prep 15 min · cook 40 min
~137 cal · 1g protein · 4g carbs · 14g fat · 1g fiber · 2g sugars · 9g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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AI-generated illustration
A hāngī is the Māori earth oven, food steamed for hours over heated stones in a covered pit. Pork, lamb and chicken, kūmara, potato and pumpkin go in, and so does the stuffing, which is as much a part of a hāngī plate as the meat. In the kono, the food baskets, meat, root vegetables and stuffing steam together inside cabbage-leaf parcels.
Hāngī stuffing is simple: bread broken into crumbs, onion, often a grated carrot, dried mixed herbs or sage, salt and plenty of melted butter. Some cooks bind it with an egg. It goes into the hāngī wrapped in foil or a clean cloth, or tucked into the baskets with the meat, and comes out moist, herby and full of the flavour of the steam.
Many families make hāngī at home in the oven when there is no time or room to dig a pit. Cookbook author Christall Lowe remembers her nana doing exactly that in winter. This recipe follows her stuffing, baked on its own in a foil parcel the way hāngī cooks wrap it, to serve beside a roast, a boil-up or an oven hāngī.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian and 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 6
- 8 slices of stale white bread
- 1 onion, finely diced
- 1 medium carrot, grated
- 2 tbsp dried mixed herbs (or dried sage)
- 1 medium lemon, zest and juice
- 2 tsp salt
- 100 g butter, melted
Instructions
- 1Heat the oven to 180C (350F). Break the bread into small pieces by hand, or pulse it to coarse crumbs in a food processor.
- 2Put the bread in a large bowl with the onion, carrot, herbs, lemon zest and juice, and salt. Pour over the melted butter and mix with your hands until everything is evenly moist.✎ Chef’s noteIf the bread is very dry and the mixture will not hold when squeezed, add a splash of water.
- 3Lay out two long sheets of foil, overlapping, and put a second double layer across them. Pile the stuffing in the middle, press it into a flat oblong about 2.5 cm thick and fold the foil over to seal it into a snug parcel.
- 4Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until hot right through. Open the parcel for the last 10 minutes if you like crisp, golden edges. Slice and serve hot with the meat and vegetables.✎ Chef’s noteFor a real or oven hāngī, put the sealed parcel in with the meat baskets and let it cook with them; it comes out moist and full of the flavour of the steam.
Māori hāngī tradition (oven method after Christall Lowe).
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Waikato. Today the same land carries the largest concentration of dairy cattle in New Zealand, something close to a quarter of the national herd, which is why butter, cream and cheese are simply assumed in the local cooking rather than treated as ingredients. The hangi still does the ceremonial work that no oven does.
🗺️
New Zealand. New Zealand pairs Māori traditions like the hāngī earth oven with abundant lamb, seafood, and dairy. Kūmara (sweet potato), pavlova, and a strong café culture round out a fresh, produce-driven national table.
🌍
Oceania. The twentieth century changed the Pacific plate faster than anything before it. White rice, tinned corned beef, mutton flaps, flour and sugar arrived by ship and are now entirely everyday, and the public health consequences are among the most closely studied anywhere. Alongside that, Australian and New Zealand kitchens have taken up Asian technique and Maori and Pasifika cooking in a way they had not before.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from New Zealand
Boil-Up with DoughboysA one-pot Māori classic: pork, kūmara, potatoes, and watercress simmered together, with dumplings dropped in at the end.
PavlovaA cloud of meringue, crisp shell, marshmallow heart, piled with cream and summer fruit. The dessert two nations claim.
Mince on ToastSavory, gravy-rich beef mince spooned over hot buttered toast, a nostalgic Kiwi breakfast and any-time comfort meal.
Browse all New Zealand recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Oven, Food processor.
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 New Zealand meal
Flat WhiteDrink
PavlovaDessert
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Cuisine
Diet
Frequently asked questions
What is Hāngī Stuffing?
Bread crumbled with onion, grated carrot, mixed herbs, lemon and melted butter, wrapped in a foil parcel and baked until steamy and golden at the edges, the stuffing that goes with a hāngī.
Where does Hāngī Stuffing come from?
Hāngī Stuffing is a Māori dish from Waikato, New Zealand.
Can Hāngī Stuffing be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Hāngī Stuffing 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 Hāngī Stuffing 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 Hāngī Stuffing take to make?
About 55 minutes total (15 minutes prep, 40 minutes cooking), serving 6.
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