Recipe
🥤 DRINK
Dawet
A chilled Javanese-Surinamese cooler of sweet coconut milk over soft jelly strands, scented with lemongrass or pandan.
Surinamese · medium · serves 4
prep 25 min · cook 15 min
~534 cal · 3g protein · 71g carbs · 29g fat · 3g fiber · 55g sugars · 25g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Dawet is a cold drink-dessert carried to Suriname by Javanese contract labourers and made thoroughly Surinamese, a cousin of Indonesian cendol. It layers a sweet, aromatic syrup and creamy over soft, slippery jelly pieces, and it is a fixture of warm-weather refreshment and celebration in the country's Javanese-Surinamese community.
A syrup is simmered from sugar (often palm sugar) with or pandan for fragrance, and soft jelly strands are made by cooking rice flour or tapioca into a paste and pressing it into cold water. To serve, the jelly goes in the bottom of the glass, then the syrup and are poured over ice, often tinted a festive pink or green. A pinch of salt in the , nearly undetectable, is the traditional touch that makes the sweetness sing.
Cool, creamy, and gently chewy, dawet is a drink you also half-eat with a spoon. Because it is built on it is not nut-free, but it is naturally dairy-free and vegan, and it shows how Java's flavours took root on South America's northern coast.
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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
2 cups
1 cup sugar, or palm sugar
2 stalks, or a pandan leaf
1/2 cup rice flour, for the jelly
2 cups water
a pinch salt
to serve ice
Instructions
1
Simmer the sugar with 1 1/2 cups of the water and the bruised lemongrass or pandan for about 10 minutes into a fragrant syrup, then cool and remove the aromatics.
2
Cook the rice flour with the remaining 1/2 cup water into a thick, translucent paste, stirring hard so it does not lump.
✎ Chef’s note
Pressing the hot paste through a colander into cold water sets the classic short jelly strands; keep the water icy so they firm up.
3
Press the paste through a colander into a bowl of cold water to form soft jelly strands, then drain.
4
Stir the pinch of salt into the coconut milk and chill everything well.
5
To serve, divide the jelly among glasses, pour over the syrup and coconut milk, and top with plenty of ice.
Paramaribo Javanese-Surinamese tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Paramaribo. Five kitchens share one city. Javanese contract workers brought saoto soup and bami, Indian indentured families brought roti eaten with the hands, Chinese shops brought stir-frying, Creole cooking runs on cassava and salt fish, and Maroon cooking came down from the rivers of the interior.
🗺️
Suriname. Suriname may have the world's most diverse cuisine per capita, fusing Javanese, Indian, Creole, Chinese, and Dutch traditions. Roti, pom, and bami reflect a remarkable culinary crossroads on the South American coast.
🌍
South America. Migration reworked the plate within living memory. Japanese arrivals in Peru and Brazil produced Nikkei cooking, Italians made pasta and pizza entirely ordinary in Argentina, Uruguay and Sao Paulo, and West African cooking carried into Bahia by the slave trade gave Brazil dende palm oil, okra and a whole ritual repertoire.
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
Storing it: Keep chilled and covered, and enjoy within 2 to 3 days.
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Drinks
Frequently asked questions
What is Dawet?
A chilled Javanese-Surinamese cooler of sweet coconut milk over soft jelly strands, scented with lemongrass or pandan.
Where does Dawet come from?
Dawet is a Surinamese dish from Paramaribo, Suriname.
Can Dawet be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Dawet 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 Dawet 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 Dawet take to make?
About 40 minutes total (25 minutes prep, 15 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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