🥔 SIDE
Fa'alifu Fa'i (Green Bananas in Coconut Cream)
Peeled green cooking bananas boiled until just tender, then simmered in salted coconut cream with onion until the sauce thickens and coats them, the everyday Samoan starch.
Samoan · easy · serves 4
prep 15 min · cook 20 min
~553 cal · 6g protein · 65g carbs · 34g fat · 9g fiber · 35g sugars · 30g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Fa'alifu dishes are Samoa's plain, filling starches finished in : , or boiled and then simmered in a rich, salted sauce of and onion. Fa'alifu fa'i, made with bananas, is the everyday one, a side dish made in Samoan homes nearly every day and served beside fish, meat or chicken, as rice or potatoes would be elsewhere.
The bananas are green and unripe, not sweet. Cooked, they are firm, starchy and mild, closer to a potato than a fruit, and they soak up the . Peeling them is the only real work: the skin clings, so it is scored lengthwise and prised off in strips with a blunt knife.
The bananas are boiled briefly until a knife goes in, then tipped into simmering with onion and salt and cooked until the cream thickens and the bananas start to break into rough pieces. Some cooks add garlic. It is served warm.
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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
- 8 medium green (unripe) cooking bananas
- 1 can (400 ml) or thick
- 1/2 medium onion, diced
- 1 tsp salt, or to taste
- 1 clove garlic, finely chopped, optional
Instructions
- 1Oil your hands or wear gloves, as green banana sap stains. Cut the ends off each banana, score the skin lengthwise in 3 or 4 places, and prise it off in strips with a blunt knife. Scrape off any green bits left on the flesh.
- 2Bring a large pot of water to the boil, add the bananas, cover and boil over medium heat for 5 to 8 minutes, until a knife just goes in. Drain well.✎ Chef’s noteDo not let them go soft in the water; they finish cooking in the coconut cream.
- 3Put the coconut cream, onion, salt and garlic (if using) in the pot and bring to a gentle boil. Add the bananas, lower the heat and simmer uncovered for about 10 minutes, stirring now and then, until the sauce is thick and creamy and the bananas begin to break into large pieces.
- 4Taste for salt and serve warm alongside fish, chicken or palusami.
Samoan home tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Upolu. Sunday is the fixed point. The umu is loaded early, the family goes to church, and the to'ona'i is eaten afterwards, taro and breadfruit and palusami and whatever fish or pork was put in, opened all at once. The oven is built on heated volcanic stones rather than deep in a pit, though accounts differ on how shallow the pit should be.
🗺️
Samoa. The Samoan umu is built above the ground rather than dug as a pit, which sets it apart from the Hawaiian imu, the Fijian lovo and the Maori hangi. Stones are heated over a wood fire, raked flat, loaded with wrapped food and covered over, and nobody touches it again until it is time to open it.
🌍
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 Samoa
Palusami (Baked Coconut Taro Parcels)Taro leaves wrapped around rich coconut cream and onion, baked until silky, the crown of the umu feast.
Koko AlaisaSamoan cocoa rice: short-grain rice simmered with rich local cocoa, coconut, and sugar into a warm, chocolatey porridge.
Fa'ausiWarm squares of grated-taro cake folded through a dark, salty-sweet coconut caramel, a Samoan Sunday favorite.
Browse all Samoa recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Pot or saucepan.
Storing it: Keeps 2 to 3 days refrigerated. Resteam or warm through gently to serve.
Make it a Samoa meal
Koko SamoaDrink
Fa'ausiDessert
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Cuisine
Diet
Frequently asked questions
What is Fa'alifu Fa'i (Green Bananas in Coconut Cream)?
Peeled green cooking bananas boiled until just tender, then simmered in salted coconut cream with onion until the sauce thickens and coats them, the everyday Samoan starch.
Where does Fa'alifu Fa'i (Green Bananas in Coconut Cream) come from?
Fa'alifu Fa'i (Green Bananas in Coconut Cream) is a Samoan dish from Upolu, Samoa.
Can Fa'alifu Fa'i (Green Bananas in Coconut Cream) be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Fa'alifu Fa'i (Green Bananas in Coconut Cream) 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 Fa'alifu Fa'i (Green Bananas in Coconut Cream) 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 Fa'alifu Fa'i (Green Bananas in Coconut Cream) take to make?
About 35 minutes total (15 minutes prep, 20 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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