South America → Suriname → Paramaribo
🍢 SNACK
Bakabana (Surinamese Plantain Fritters with Peanut Sauce)
Long slices of ripe plantain dipped in a light, crisp batter and fried golden, served with a warm Javanese-style peanut sauce spiked with garlic, chili, sweet soy and galangal.
Surinamese (Javanese) · easy · serves 4
prep 15 min · cook 25 min
~831 cal · 20g protein · 84g carbs · 50g fat · 8g fiber · 29g sugars · 9g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Bakabana is Sranan Tongo for fried banana, and in Suriname it means slices of ripe fried in batter and eaten with peanut sauce. It is a Surinamese-Javanese snack, part of the cooking of the Javanese who came to Suriname as contract labourers from the late nineteenth century, and it is close kin to Indonesian pisang goreng. Where pisang goreng is dusted with sugar, bakabana goes with pindasaus, and the sweet fruit against the salty, spicy sauce is what makes it.
It is eaten as a snack, served at parties, and put on the table beside bami and other Javanese-Surinamese dishes, and it travelled with the Surinamese community to the Netherlands, where it is just as popular.
Use that are yellow and flecked with black, ripe and sweet but still firm enough to slice. A thin batter made with ice-cold sparkling water fries up light and crisp. The peanut sauce is cooked from peanut butter loosened with water and seasoned with garlic, chili, a little tomato paste, ketjap (sweet soy sauce), vinegar and laos, dried .
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian, vegan and 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
- 3 ripe (yellow with black spots)
- 1 cup (125 g) self-raising flour, or plain flour with 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tbsp sugar
- a good pinch salt
- about 3/4 cup (180 ml) ice-cold sparkling water
- 1 l vegetable oil, for frying
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil (for the sauce)
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- 1 fresh red chili, finely chopped, or sambal, to taste
- 1 tsp tomato paste
- 1 cup (250 g) smooth peanut butter
- 1 to 1 1/2 cups water (for the sauce)
- 3 tbsp ketjap manis (sweet soy sauce)
- 1 tbsp white vinegar
- 1 tsp laos (ground )
- to taste salt (for the sauce)
Instructions
- 1Make the peanut sauce: warm the oil in a small saucepan over low heat, add the garlic and chili and stir for a minute, then the tomato paste for a minute more.
- 2Add the peanut butter and stir until it melts, then whisk in the water a little at a time until smooth. Stir in the ketjap, vinegar and laos and simmer gently for 5 minutes, stirring, until thick enough to coat a spoon. Season with salt and keep warm.✎ Chef’s noteKeep the heat low and stir often; peanut sauce catches easily. Loosen it with more water if it thickens as it stands.
- 3Peel the plantains and cut them on a long diagonal into slices about 1 to 1.5 cm thick.
- 4Whisk the flour, sugar and salt with enough cold sparkling water to make a smooth batter that coats the back of a spoon, like thick cream.
- 5Heat the frying oil in a wok or deep pan to 180C (350F). Dip the plantain slices in the batter, let the excess drip off, and fry in batches for 3 to 4 minutes a side until golden and crisp.
- 6Drain on paper and serve hot with the warm peanut sauce.
Javanese-Surinamese tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Paramaribo. Paramaribo is a wooden colonial capital with one of the most layered kitchens anywhere, mixing Javanese, Indian, Chinese, Creole, and Maroon cooking. Pom, a baked casserole of grated pomtajer root and chicken, is its celebration dish.
🗺️
Suriname. Pom is credited to Portuguese-Jewish plantation families, who substituted the indigenous pomtajer root for the potato they could not get, and it is defined as much by the bitter-orange juice poured through it as by the chicken. The local saying is that without pom there are no birthdays, and it is a claim about occasions rather than about frequency.
🌍
South America. South America's cooking follows its dramatic geography, potatoes and quinoa in the high Andes, cassava and river fish in the Amazon basin, and grass-fed beef on the pampas. Indigenous ingredients like maize, ají peppers, and cacao meet Spanish, Portuguese, African, Italian, and Japanese influences brought by five centuries of migration. Ceviche, feijoada, arepas, and the smoke of the asado are its most beloved icons.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Suriname
PomA festive baked casserole of grated pomtajer root and citrus-marinated chicken, crisp on top and tangy within.
BaraLittle savory fried rings of ground urdi and flour, green with chopped tajer leaf and heavy with masala, eaten hot with chutney or sambal.
Roti met KipGriddled split-pea roti served with a curried chicken, potato, and long-bean masala, Suriname's signature plate.
Browse all Suriname recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Wok, Pot or saucepan, Whisk.
Storing it: Fried food is best eaten fresh while crisp. Re-crisp leftovers in a hot oven or air fryer; the microwave makes them soft.
Make it a Suriname meal
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Bojo CakeDessert
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Cuisine
Diet
Frequently asked questions
What is Bakabana (Surinamese Plantain Fritters with Peanut Sauce)?
Long slices of ripe plantain dipped in a light, crisp batter and fried golden, served with a warm Javanese-style peanut sauce spiked with garlic, chili, sweet soy and galangal.
Where does Bakabana (Surinamese Plantain Fritters with Peanut Sauce) come from?
Bakabana (Surinamese Plantain Fritters with Peanut Sauce) is a Surinamese (Javanese) dish from Paramaribo, Suriname.
Can Bakabana (Surinamese Plantain Fritters with Peanut Sauce) be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Bakabana (Surinamese Plantain Fritters with Peanut Sauce) 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 Bakabana (Surinamese Plantain Fritters with Peanut Sauce) 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 Bakabana (Surinamese Plantain Fritters with Peanut Sauce) take to make?
About 40 minutes total (15 minutes prep, 25 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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