Recipe
🍳 BREAKFAST
Green Fig and Saltfish
Saint Lucia's national breakfast: boiled green bananas tossed with sautéed salted cod, peppers, and herbs.
Saint Lucian · easy · serves 4
prep 20 min · cook 30 min
~366 cal · 20g protein · 67g carbs · 5g fat · 10g fiber · 34g sugars · 4g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
↓ Jump to Recipe
AI-generated illustration
Green fig and saltfish is the national dish of Saint Lucia, a humble breakfast that carries the island's history in its two main ingredients. Here fig means , the everyday starch of the eastern Caribbean.
The are boiled until tender and tossed with salt cod that has been soaked, flaked, and sauteed with onion, sweet pepper, tomato, and herbs. The starchy, mild banana against the savoury, salty fish is the comforting heart of the dish.
A relic of the plantation era, when salt cod was cheap imported protein and bananas grew everywhere, it has become a proud national plate. Green fig and saltfish is Saint Lucian identity on a breakfast plate, resourceful and deeply satisfying.
Saved recipes and passport stamps are kept on this device. Sign in to keep them across your devices and leave reviews.
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
12 oz salted cod (saltfish), soaked and flaked
8 green (unripe) bananas
1 onion
1 bell pepper
2 tomato
3 cloves garlic
1 tsp thyme
1/2
3 tbsp coconut or vegetable oil
1 lime
to taste salt and black pepper
Instructions
1
Soak the saltfish to remove excess salt, then boil briefly and flake (skip the soak for hearts of palm).
2
Score and boil the green bananas in their skins for about 15 minutes until tender; peel and slice.
3
Sauté the onion, garlic, pepper, tomato, thyme, and scotch bonnet until soft.
4
Fold in the flaked saltfish (or hearts of palm) and warm through with a squeeze of lime.
5
Serve the saltfish over or alongside the boiled green figs.
Castries tradition.
Ratings & reviews
Cooked it? Rate this dish:
No account needed. Sign in to leave a full review with a comment.
Cooked it?
Kept on this device, no account needed. Sign in to leave a review and keep your passport across your devices.
No reviews yet, be the first to cook it.
🌏 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
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.
Coconut TurnoverSoft sweet yeasted dough folded around spiced, sticky grated coconut, a Saint Lucian bakery treat.
Browse all Saint Lucia recipes →
Good to know
Storing it: Keeps 2 to 3 days refrigerated. Resteam or warm through gently to serve.
Make it a Saint Lucia meal
Sea MossDrink
Coconut TurnoverDessert
Similar dishes from around the world
Cou-Cou & Flying FishBarbados
Pulpo a la GallegaSpain
Coconut Crab with TaroMicronesia
Maboké de Capitaine (Steamed Fish in Banana Leaf)Central African Republic
Liboke ya MbisiRepublic of the Congo
Babai with Coconut FishKiribati
Cuisine
Diet
Frequently asked questions
What is Green Fig and Saltfish?
Saint Lucia's national breakfast: boiled green bananas tossed with sautéed salted cod, peppers, and herbs.
Where does Green Fig and Saltfish come from?
Green Fig and Saltfish is a Saint Lucian dish from Castries, Saint Lucia.
Can Green Fig and Saltfish be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Green Fig and Saltfish 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 Green Fig and Saltfish 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 Green Fig and Saltfish take to make?
About 50 minutes total (20 minutes prep, 30 minutes cooking), serving 4.
Get the Sunday Spin
One dish from somewhere in the world, in your inbox every Sunday. No spam, just dinner inspiration you can cook that day.