Recipe
🍳 BREAKFAST
Keke Isite
Tongan fried "yeast cakes", crisp-shelled, fluffy doughnuts eaten warm with tea, a Saturday-morning island tradition.
Tongan · medium · serves 6
prep 90 min · cook 15 min
~403 cal · 6g protein · 65g carbs · 13g fat · 2g fiber · 17g sugars · 2g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Keke isite, from the English yeast cakes, are Tonga's fried doughnuts, a Saturday-morning tradition and an all-day snack across the kingdom. They are sold warm from home kitchens and roadside stands alike.
A lightly sweet yeasted dough is left to rise, shaped into balls, and deep-fried until the outside is crisp and deep golden and the inside stays soft and fluffy. The rise is what gives them their airy, pillowy crumb.
Eaten warm with a cup of tea, plain or dusted with sugar, they are simple pleasure and shared ritual at once. Comforting and just sweet enough, keke isite are woven into the easy rhythm of a Tongan weekend.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian, vegan and dairy-, nut-, 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 6
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp instant yeast
1 tsp baking powder
1.25 cups warm water
4 cups , for frying
1/2 tsp salt
Instructions
1
Mix the flour, sugar, yeast, baking powder, and salt, then stir in warm water to a thick, sticky batter-dough.
2
Cover and let rise until bubbly and doubled, about an hour.
3
Heat the oil deep in a heavy pan, then scoop up a handful of the batter and squeeze a golf-ball-sized lump out through your fist into the oil, filling the pan in a single layer.
✎ Chef’s note
Test the oil with a small scoop of batter before you start. It should sink, come back up within a couple of seconds, and colour slowly. If it browns inside thirty seconds the oil is too hot and the middle will stay raw; if it sits on the bottom the oil is too cool and the keke will drink it.
4
Fry slowly, about two minutes a side, turning once, until deep golden and cooked through, then drain.
✎ Chef’s note
Cut the first one open before you commit to the rest, and adjust the heat from what you find. Keke isite are eaten warm and plain with a big cup of tea or Milo; they need no sugar on the outside.
Tongan weekend market tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Tongatapu. The commonest lu here is lu pulu, made with tinned corned beef rather than fresh pork. Imported tins displaced fresh meat in Tongan households from the 1920s and became the festive ingredient, wrapped with coconut cream inside taro leaves and set in the umu.
🗺️
Tonga. Sunday in Tonga is protected by the constitution, which is why the Sunday feast carries the weight it does: the umu is loaded the night before and opened after church, and almost nothing else is open. Ota ika, raw fish in citrus and coconut cream, is the Tongan member of the same family as Fijian kokoda and Samoan oka.
🌍
Oceania. Oceania spans Australia, New Zealand, and thousands of Pacific islands, where the ocean and the coconut palm define the pantry. Traditional Polynesian and Melanesian cooking centers on root crops, taro, yam, cassava, and sweet potato, slow-cooked in earth ovens (the umu or mumu) alongside fresh reef fish and rich coconut cream. Modern Australian and Māori kitchens blend these deep roots with waves of Asian and European influence.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Tonga
Lū PuluTaro-leaf parcels of seasoned beef and onion drowned in coconut cream, baked low until silken, Tonga’s Sunday centerpiece.
Faikakai TopaiSoft boiled dumplings drowned in a thick, dark coconut-sugar caramel, a Tongan after-feast sweet.
Kapisi PuluCabbage stewed with tinned corned beef and onion in coconut cream, the quick weekday cousin of Tonga's Sunday lu pulu.
Browse all Tonga recipes →
Good to know
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 Tonga meal
'OtaiDrink
Faikakai TopaiDessert
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Frequently asked questions
What is Keke Isite?
Tongan fried "yeast cakes", crisp-shelled, fluffy doughnuts eaten warm with tea, a Saturday-morning island tradition.
Where does Keke Isite come from?
Keke Isite is a Tongan dish from Tongatapu, Tonga.
Can Keke Isite be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Keke Isite 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 Keke Isite 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 Keke Isite take to make?
About 105 minutes total (90 minutes prep, 15 minutes cooking), serving 6.
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