🍽️ DINNER
Lap Lap
Grated root vegetables and coconut cream wrapped in banana leaf and baked in an earth oven, Vanuatu's national dish.
Ni-Vanuatu · medium · serves 6
prep 40 min · cook 90 min
~552 cal · 7g protein · 74g carbs · 28g fat · 13g fiber · 8g sugars · 24g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Lap lap is the national dish of Vanuatu, the centre of feasts and everyday meals alike across the archipelago's many islands and languages. More than a recipe, it is a marker of ni-Vanuatu identity, cooked in earth ovens for celebrations and shared widely.
Root vegetables such as , yam, banana, or are grated to a smooth paste, enriched with , and often layered with island cabbage and meat or fish. The paste is wrapped in banana leaves and baked slowly over hot stones until it sets into a dense, savoury cake.
Each island and family has its own version, distinguished by the root used and the fillings tucked inside. Rich, earthy, and satisfying, lap lap is food built for sharing, and to eat it is to taste the staple crops and communal spirit of Vanuatu.
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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 6
- 3 lb yam, , or , peeled
- 2 cups thick
- 6 large banana leaves, softened over a flameHard to find? baking parchment inside a layer of foil - it will hold the parcel together and steam it just as well; what you lose is the faint grassy scent the leaf gives the food, which is not nothing but is not the structure either. Frozen banana leaves keep for months and are stocked by most Asian and Caribbean grocers
- 2 cups island cabbage (or spinach), shredded
- 1 tsp sea salt
Instructions
- 1Grate the peeled root vegetable finely on a stone or box grater into a smooth, thick paste and season with salt.
- 2Line a baking dish with overlapping banana leaves, leaving plenty of overhang.
- 3Spread half the paste, layer the greens, pour over half the coconut cream, then repeat with the remaining paste and cream.
- 4Fold the banana leaves over to seal into a tight parcel, pour a little more coconut cream over the outside of the leaves, and cover with foil.✎ Chef’s noteIf you want the fuller version, lay chicken, pork or fish over the first layer of paste before the greens go on. Lap lap is as often made with meat in it as without.
- 5Bake at 350°F (180C) for 1 to 2 hours (standing in for the earth oven) until firm and set right through; rest, then slice through the leaf to serve.✎ Chef’s noteGive it the time. Grated raw root vegetable takes far longer to set than it looks, and a lap lap pulled early is gluey in the middle.
Efate, Vanuatu tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Efate (Port Vila). Efate holds Port Vila, where lap lap bakes for hours under hot stones: grated root vegetable spread on leaves, soaked in coconut cream, and wrapped tight. Vanuatu's kitchen runs on taro, yam, breadfruit, coconut, and reef fish.
🗺️
Vanuatu. Vanuatu's cuisine is rooted in root crops and the earth oven, epitomized by laplap, grated taro or yam baked in banana leaves with coconut cream. Fresh fish, tropical fruit, and communal cooking define island life.
🌍
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 Vanuatu
SimboroGrated cassava rolled in island-cabbage leaves and simmered in coconut cream, Vanuatu's everyday take on laplap.
Nalot (Pounded Breadfruit with Coconut Cream)Roasted breadfruit pounded to a smooth, heavy paste and served with a well of hot coconut cream poured into the middle.
Sweet Banana LaplapThe sweet, dessert cousin of Vanuatu's savory national dish: grated cassava and ripe banana bound in coconut cream, wrapped in banana leaves and baked until dense and pudding-like.
Browse all Vanuatu 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 Vanuatu meal
Nakamal KavaDrink
Sweet Banana LaplapDessert
SimboroLunch
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Frequently asked questions
What is Lap Lap?
Grated root vegetables and coconut cream wrapped in banana leaf and baked in an earth oven, Vanuatu's national dish.
Where does Lap Lap come from?
Lap Lap is a Ni-Vanuatu dish from Efate (Port Vila), Vanuatu.
Can Lap Lap be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Lap Lap 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 Lap Lap 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 Lap Lap take to make?
About 130 minutes total (40 minutes prep, 90 minutes cooking), serving 6.
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