North America → Saint Lucia → Castries
🥔 SIDE
Saint Lucian Green Fig Salad
Boiled green bananas, the green figs of Saint Lucia, diced and folded with mayonnaise, peas and carrots, sweet pepper, scallion, onion and garlic into a creamy, potato-salad-style Sunday side.
Saint Lucian · easy · serves 8
prep 25 min · cook 20 min · plus 1 h hands-off time
~298 cal · 2g protein · 41g carbs · 15g fat · 5g fiber · 21g sugars · 2g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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In Saint Lucia are called , and for decades they were the island's main export crop. Green fig salad is one of the dishes that grew out of that abundance. It is made in many homes for Sunday lunch, served beside baked chicken, stews, curries and barbecue, and it turns up at almost every gathering and event on the island.
It is built like a potato salad, with in place of potatoes. The figs are boiled until tender, peeled and diced, and one or two are mashed so the salad holds together. Mixed vegetables, sweet peppers, , grated onion and garlic go in with mayonnaise, salt and black pepper. Some cooks fold in flaked saltfish or chopped egg, or add a little hot pepper.
Chilled before serving, it is creamy, savoury and filling, with the firm, faintly tangy bite that only give.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian and gluten-, dairy-, 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 8
- 8 (about 1.2 kg) (green unripe bananas)
- 1 clove garlic (for the cooking water)
- 1 tbsp salt (for the cooking water)
- 1 cup frozen mixed vegetables (peas, carrots and corn), cooked and cooled
- 1 red or yellow sweet pepper, finely diced
- 3 , chopped
- 1/2 small onion, finely grated
- 1 clove garlic, finely grated
- 3/4 cup mayonnaise
- to taste salt and freshly ground black pepper
- a few dashes hot pepper sauce, optional
Instructions
- 1Wash the green figs, cut off both ends and make a shallow slit lengthwise through the skin of each.✎ Chef’s noteOil your hands or wear gloves. The sap stains skin and cloth.
- 2Bring a large pot of water to the boil with the garlic clove and salt, add the figs in their skins and boil for 15 to 20 minutes, until a fork slides in easily. Some figs take longer; test each one.
- 3Drain, and when cool enough to handle peel off the skins. Dice the figs into 1.5 cm cubes and mash one of them roughly with a fork.
- 4Put the diced and mashed figs in a large bowl with the mixed vegetables, sweet pepper, scallions, grated onion, grated garlic and mayonnaise. Mix gently until everything is coated, and season with salt, pepper and hot sauce if you like.
- 5Cover and chill for at least 1 hour before serving cold beside the main dish.
Saint Lucian tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Castries. Green fig means green banana here and nothing else; the fruit fig has no part in it at all. Unripe bananas are boiled in their skins until the flesh turns firm and waxy, then tossed through salt cod that has been soaked and flaked, with onion, sweet pepper and thyme.
🗺️
Saint Lucia. Green fig means green banana, not the fruit. The national dish pairs it with salt cod, which is a colonial make-do: European salt fish arriving on the same ships that carried the plantation economy, meeting the bananas that grew everywhere, and the two boiled and dressed with onion, sweet pepper and local seasoning.
🌍
North America. Almost every regional cooking here records who arrived and on what terms. Enslaved West Africans brought rice, okra, black-eyed peas and the techniques behind Lowcountry and Creole food; Chinese railway labour and later Italian, Jewish, Mexican and Vietnamese arrivals built the way the cities eat; and Indigenous foodways sit underneath all of it.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Saint Lucia
Green Fig and SaltfishSaint Lucia's national breakfast: boiled green bananas tossed with sautéed salted cod, peppers, and herbs.
Saint Lucian BouyonA one-pot soup-stew of salted pig tail, beans, ground provisions, dumplings, and greens in a coconut broth.
Saint Lucian Pumpkin RiceRice simmered with sweet pumpkin, coconut, and island herbs into a soft, golden one-pot, an everyday Lucian lunch.
Browse all Saint Lucia recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Pot or saucepan.
Storing it: Best assembled just before serving. Prep the components ahead and dress at the last moment so it stays crisp.
Make it a Saint Lucia meal
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Cuisine
Diet
Frequently asked questions
What is Saint Lucian Green Fig Salad?
Boiled green bananas, the green figs of Saint Lucia, diced and folded with mayonnaise, peas and carrots, sweet pepper, scallion, onion and garlic into a creamy, potato-salad-style Sunday side.
Where does Saint Lucian Green Fig Salad come from?
Saint Lucian Green Fig Salad is a Saint Lucian dish from Castries, Saint Lucia.
Can Saint Lucian Green Fig Salad be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Saint Lucian Green Fig Salad 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 Saint Lucian Green Fig Salad 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 Saint Lucian Green Fig Salad take to make?
About 1 h 45 min in all: 25 minutes prep and 20 minutes cooking, plus 1 h of hands-off waiting the method needs, serving 8.
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