Recipe
🥙 LUNCH
'Ota 'Ika (Tongan Raw Fish Salad)
White fish marinated in lemon, then tossed with coconut cream and plenty of diced tomato, cucumber, capsicum and spring onion.
Tongan · easy · serves 6
prep 25 min · cook 0 min
~338 cal · 18g protein · 19g carbs · 23g fat · 4g fiber · 9g sugars · 20g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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'Ota 'ika is Tonga's raw-fish dish, a cousin of Fijian kokoda and Samoan oka but with its own character: more vegetables, and only a brief marinade. Fresh white fish is cut into bite-sized pieces, in lemon juice, then dressed with and a bright mix of diced vegetables.
Traditionally the fisherman filleted the catch by running the knife along the backbone, and the dish is eaten a little rugged, scraped off the bone. , pressed fresh in the village, mellows the sharp citrus, while tomato, cucumber, capsicum and spring onion make it colourful and crisp.
It sits on the table at almost any Tongan gathering and is a fixture of the Sunday lunch after church. It is served chilled, alongside , or kumara.
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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 6
1 lb fresh white fish fillets (snapper or similar), diced
1/2 cup lemon juice, freshly squeezed
1 can (400 ml)
2 tomatoes, diced
1 cucumber, peeled and diced
1 capsicum (bell pepper), diced
3 spring onions, sliced
1 red chilli, sliced (optional)
to taste salt
Instructions
1
Put the diced fish in a bowl, pour over the lemon juice, cover and chill to marinate, from 30 minutes for lightly cured up to a couple of hours.
✎ Chef’s note
For a firmer, more cooked texture leave it longer; for tofu, 20 to 30 minutes is enough to take on the lemon.
2
Meanwhile, dice the tomato, cucumber and capsicum and slice the spring onions.
3
Add the vegetables to the fish, pour over the coconut cream, and mix well until everything is coated.
4
Season with salt, add chilli if you want heat, and loosen with a splash of water if the cream is too thick. Serve chilled with taro, cassava or kumara.
Tongan Sunday lunch tradition, Tongatapu.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Tongatapu. Tongatapu is the royal island, where the umu, an earth oven of hot stones, cooks lu parcels of taro leaf filled with coconut cream and meat or fish. Root crops, breadfruit, and reef fish anchor a Sunday table built around family and church.
🗺️
Tonga. Tongan food is Polynesian at heart, built on root crops like taro and cassava, coconut cream, and the underground ʻumu oven. Lu pulu (corned beef and taro leaves in coconut) is a Sunday-feast favorite.
🌍
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 Tonga
Lū PuluTaro-leaf parcels of seasoned beef and onion drowned in coconut cream, baked low until silken, Tonga’s Sunday centerpiece.
Keke IsiteTongan fried "yeast cakes", crisp-shelled, fluffy doughnuts eaten warm with tea, a Saturday-morning island tradition.
Faikakai TopaiSoft boiled dumplings drowned in a thick, dark coconut-sugar caramel, a Tongan after-feast sweet.
Browse all Tonga recipes →
Good to know
Storing it: Best assembled just before serving. Prep the components ahead and dress at the last moment so it stays crisp.
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Frequently asked questions
What is 'Ota 'Ika (Tongan Raw Fish Salad)?
White fish marinated in lemon, then tossed with coconut cream and plenty of diced tomato, cucumber, capsicum and spring onion.
Where does 'Ota 'Ika (Tongan Raw Fish Salad) come from?
'Ota 'Ika (Tongan Raw Fish Salad) is a Tongan dish from Tongatapu, Tonga.
Can 'Ota 'Ika (Tongan Raw Fish Salad) be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This 'Ota 'Ika (Tongan Raw Fish Salad) 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 'Ota 'Ika (Tongan Raw Fish Salad) 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 'Ota 'Ika (Tongan Raw Fish Salad) take to make?
About 25 minutes total (25 minutes prep, 0 minutes cooking), serving 6.
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