Recipe
🍽️ DINNER
Demok
A rich Palauan taro-leaf soup thickened with coconut cream and studded with crab or fish.
Palauan · easy · serves 4
prep 20 min · cook 50 min
~636 cal · 25g protein · 56g carbs · 36g fat · 9g fiber · 7g sugars · 28g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Demok is a treasured Palauan dish, a rich green soup built on leaves that anchors family meals and celebrations. is fundamental to Palauan life and identity, and its leaves, not just its root, are put to delicious use here.
The leaves are cooked down until tender and thickened with into a velvety, spinach-green soup, then studded with crab or fish and seasoned simply. The starch of the and the fat of the coconut give it real body and a mellow, earthy flavour.
Comforting and deeply local, demok is served warm alongside or rice as part of a shared meal. It reflects a cuisine built on the reef and the patch, and it is one of the dishes Palauans hold as distinctly their own.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally 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 4
1.5 lb young leaves (or spinach), chopped, taro leaves must be fully cooked before eating
12 oz crab meat or firm fish
1.5 cups thick
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
to taste black pepper
to taste salt
Instructions
1
Soften the onion and garlic, then simmer the taro leaves with them for at least 40 minutes, until completely soft.
✎ Chef’s note
Taro leaves must be cooked thoroughly, not merely wilted. Under-cooked leaves keep their calcium oxalate crystals, which make the throat itch and burn; the traditional Palauan cooks give them anything from forty minutes to two hours.
2
Pour in the coconut cream and cook gently 10 minutes until velvety, do not boil hard.
3
Add the crab or fish (or hearts of palm and mushrooms) and warm through until just cooked.
4
Season with salt and black pepper, and no more than that.
✎ Chef’s note
Palauan cooking is deliberately spare. As one Palau chef puts it, they do not like to disguise what they cook: fish should taste like fish and the taro leaf should taste like itself.
5
Serve hot with taro, rice, or breadfruit.
Ngerulmud tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Ngerulmud. Ngerulmud is the world's smallest capital, on islands built around taro patches and coconut groves. Palauan cooking centres on reef fish and tuna, taro cooked in coconut milk, and the fruit bat and crab dishes reserved for occasions.
🗺️
Palau. Palauan cuisine is Micronesian and reef-driven, taro, cassava, fresh fish, and the giant fruit bat soup once served at feasts. Coconut, root crops, and the surrounding ocean define the island table.
🌍
Oceania. The staple crops here were carried on purpose. Lapita voyagers moving east from roughly three thousand years ago brought taro, yam, banana, breadfruit and coconut with them along with pigs and chickens, because most of the islands they settled had almost nothing edible growing on them. The earth oven travelled too, as umu, imu, hangi, lovo, mumu, motu and um.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Palau
Taro with Coconut SyrupSteamed taro drizzled with a warm caramel-like coconut syrup, a gently sweet Palauan breakfast built on the islands' staple root.
UlkoyGolden fritters of grated squash and small shrimp bound with a little flour and fried crisp, a favorite Palauan snack-lunch.
Seboseb (Tapioca Coconut Pudding)A silky Palauan pudding of tapioca starch cooked slowly with sugar and coconut milk until glossy and chewy, served cool.
Browse all Palau 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 Palau meal
Young Coconut WaterDrink
Seboseb (Tapioca Coconut Pudding)Dessert
Belsiich el Kukau (Pounded Taro)Lunch
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Lo'i Feke (Octopus in Coconut Cream)Tonga
Cuisine
Diet
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Dairy-Free Recipes from Around the World
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Pork-Free Recipes from Around the World
Dairy-Free Palauan Recipes
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Frequently asked questions
What is Demok?
A rich Palauan taro-leaf soup thickened with coconut cream and studded with crab or fish.
Where does Demok come from?
Demok is a Palauan dish from Ngerulmud, Palau.
Can Demok be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Demok 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 Demok 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 Demok take to make?
About 70 minutes total (20 minutes prep, 50 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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