Recipe
🍽️ DINNER
Pulaka with Coconut Fish
Earthy swamp-taro pulaka served with fish baked in coconut cream, the mainstay of atoll life.
Tuvaluan · medium · serves 4
prep 25 min · cook 50 min
~865 cal · 43g protein · 80g carbs · 41g fat · 12g fiber · 7g sugars · 30g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
↓ Jump to Recipe
AI-generated illustration
Pulaka, sometimes called swamp , is the mainstay of life on the low atolls of Tuvalu, grown with patience in dug pits where fresh groundwater collects. Dense and earthy, it is the reliable staple that has fed the islands for centuries.
Here it is served with fish baked in , the richness of the coconut balancing the pulaka's dense, slightly bitter starch. Together they form a complete and grounding meal from a place with very little soil to spare.
Because pulaka takes so long to grow and demands such care, it carries real cultural weight in Tuvalu. This dish is a quiet celebration of atoll ingenuity, of making abundance from a narrow strip of coral and a generous sea.
Saved recipes and passport stamps are kept on this device. Sign in to keep them across your devices and leave reviews.
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 4
2 lb pulaka or root, peeled
1.5 lb fish fillets
1.5 cups thick
1 onion, finely chopped
1 lime
to taste salt
Instructions
1
Peel the pulaka, then boil or bake it until fully tender, and slice it.
✎ Chef’s note
Pulaka is Cyrtosperma merkusii, swamp taro, grown in pits dug down to the freshwater lens beneath the atoll and one of the very few carbohydrates that will grow on coral. It must be cooked right through: like taro it carries calcium oxalate, and undercooked it catches at the throat.
2
Lay the fish (or hearts of palm and mushrooms) in a dish with the onion.
3
Pour over the coconut cream and season with salt.
4
Bake at 375°F for about 25 minutes until the fish is cooked and the coconut thickens.
5
Finish with lime and serve with the sliced pulaka.
Funafuti tradition.
Ratings & reviews
Cooked it? Rate this dish:
No account needed. Sign in to leave a full review with a comment.
Cooked it?
Kept on this device, no account needed. Sign in to leave a review and keep your passport across your devices.
No reviews yet, be the first to cook it.
🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Funafuti. Pulaka is the same plant as Kiribati's babai, grown in pits dug below the freshwater lens, and it takes around five years to make a tuber worth lifting. Preservation here is by drying rather than fermenting, because a brackish water table makes deep fermentation pits impossible.
🗺️
Tuvalu. Tuvalu's atoll food is built on coconut, fish, and root crops like pulaka (swamp taro), often baked in an earth oven. The sweet pulaka-and-coconut pudding fekei is a favorite on these low Pacific islands.
🌍
Oceania. The twentieth century changed the Pacific plate faster than anything before it. White rice, tinned corned beef, mutton flaps, flour and sugar arrived by ship and are now entirely everyday, and the public health consequences are among the most closely studied anywhere. Alongside that, Australian and New Zealand kitchens have taken up Asian technique and Maori and Pasifika cooking in a way they had not before.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Tuvalu
FekeiA sweet Tuvaluan pudding of grated pulaka or banana cooked with coconut cream into a sticky, caramel-rich cake.
Grilled Breadfruit with MitiWhole breadfruit roasted over coals until smoky and tender, torn into pieces and dipped into miti, a fresh coconut cream sauce sharpened with onion, chili and lime.
Puleleti (Coconut and Coconut Syrup Sweet)A chewy Tuvaluan coconut candy, fresh grated coconut cooked down with sweet coconut toddy syrup until thick, sticky and glossy.
Browse all Tuvalu recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Oven.
Storing it: Keeps 3 to 4 days refrigerated and reheats covered in the oven. Most bakes can be assembled a day ahead and baked when needed.
Make it a Tuvalu meal
KaleveDrink
Talo Tokotokoi (Baked Taro with Coconut Cream)Dessert
Grilled Breadfruit with MitiLunch
Similar dishes from around the world
Fish Baked in Coconut and PandanusNauru
Bahraini Hammour with DaqqusBahrain
Barramundi in Banana LeafMarshall Islands
Janssons Frestelse (Jansson’s Temptation)Sweden
Palusami (Baked Coconut Taro Parcels)Samoa
Lū PuluTonga
Cuisine
Diet
Gluten-Free Recipes from Around the World
Dairy-Free Recipes from Around the World
Egg-Free Recipes from Around the World
Pork-Free Recipes from Around the World
Gluten-Free Tuvaluan Recipes
Dairy-Free Tuvaluan Recipes
Gluten-Free Dinners from Around the World
Dairy-Free Dinners from Around the World
Egg-Free Dinners from Around the World
Frequently asked questions
What is Pulaka with Coconut Fish?
Earthy swamp-taro pulaka served with fish baked in coconut cream, the mainstay of atoll life.
Where does Pulaka with Coconut Fish come from?
Pulaka with Coconut Fish is a Tuvaluan dish from Funafuti, Tuvalu.
Can Pulaka with Coconut Fish be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Pulaka with Coconut Fish 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 Pulaka with Coconut Fish 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 Pulaka with Coconut Fish take to make?
About 75 minutes total (25 minutes prep, 50 minutes cooking), serving 4.
Get the Sunday Spin
One dish from somewhere in the world, in your inbox every Sunday. No spam, just dinner inspiration you can cook that day.