Recipe
🍳 BREAKFAST
Taro with Coconut Syrup
Steamed taro drizzled with a warm caramel-like coconut syrup, a gently sweet Palauan breakfast built on the islands' staple root.
Palauan · easy · serves 4
prep 10 min · cook 30 min
~454 cal · 5g protein · 66g carbs · 20g fat · 8g fiber · 21g sugars · 18g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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is the heart of Palauan food and culture, cultivated in prized wetland patches and central to both everyday meals and ceremony. This gentle breakfast pairs the islands' staple root with a sweet coconut finish.
is steamed until tender and earthy, then drizzled with a warm syrup of cooked down with sugar until it turns thick and lightly caramel. The rich, mellow syrup transforms the plain root into a soft, comforting morning dish.
Simple and grounding, it reflects a cuisine that builds abundance from and coconut. Faintly sweet and deeply local, with coconut syrup is a quiet, satisfying start to a Palauan day.
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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 4
1.5 lbs , peeled
1 cup
1/3 cup sugar
1 pinch pinch of salt
Instructions
1
Peel and cut the taro into chunks, then steam or boil until very tender and easily pierced, 15 to 20 minutes.
✎ Chef’s note
Take it well past just-done. Taro that is merely tender still catches at the throat; it needs to be soft the whole way through.
2
Meanwhile simmer the coconut cream with the sugar and salt, stirring, until it thickens to a pourable syrup.
3
Slice the warm taro and arrange on plates.
4
Drizzle the warm coconut syrup over the taro and serve while both are still hot.
✎ Chef’s note
A knotted pandan leaf simmered in the coconut cream and lifted out at the end is a common addition. The other everyday Palauan version of this pairing skips the slices altogether: the taro is mashed, ripe cooking bananas are stirred in, and the whole lot is cooked down in the sweetened coconut milk into a thick pudding, eaten warm or cold.
Palauan reef-island cooking.
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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. Palau's capital, Ngerulmud, is the least populous national capital in the world, which is a fair signal of the scale involved: a scattered archipelago where the reef is the larder and the fish comes in the same day. Cassava arrived later and now shares the work with taro, and imported rice has taken over a good deal of both.
🌍
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
DemokA rich Palauan taro-leaf soup thickened with coconut cream and studded with crab or fish.
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
You’ll need: Steamer.
Storing it: Keep chilled and covered, and enjoy within 2 to 3 days.
Make it a Palau meal
Young Coconut WaterDrink
Seboseb (Tapioca Coconut Pudding)Dessert
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Frequently asked questions
What is Taro with Coconut Syrup?
Steamed taro drizzled with a warm caramel-like coconut syrup, a gently sweet Palauan breakfast built on the islands' staple root.
Where does Taro with Coconut Syrup come from?
Taro with Coconut Syrup is a Palauan dish from Ngerulmud, Palau.
Can Taro with Coconut Syrup be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Taro with Coconut Syrup 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 Taro with Coconut Syrup 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 Taro with Coconut Syrup take to make?
About 40 minutes total (10 minutes prep, 30 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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