North America → Saint Lucia → Castries
🍳 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
~417 cal · 19g protein · 65g carbs · 11g fat · 9g fiber · 33g sugars · 2g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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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.
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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
- 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
- 1Soak the saltfish to remove excess salt, then boil briefly and flake (skip the soak for hearts of palm).
- 2Score and boil the green bananas in their skins for about 15 minutes until tender; peel and slice.
- 3Sauté the onion, garlic, pepper, tomato, thyme, and scotch bonnet until soft.
- 4Fold in the flaked saltfish (or hearts of palm) and warm through with a squeeze of lime.
- 5Serve the saltfish over or alongside the boiled green figs.
Castries 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
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
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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. Treat the substitutions 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 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 Green Fig and Saltfish take to make?
About 50 minutes total (20 minutes prep, 30 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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