Recipe
🥙 LUNCH
Simboro
Grated cassava rolled in island-cabbage leaves and simmered in coconut cream, Vanuatu's everyday take on laplap.
Ni-Vanuatu · easy · serves 4
prep 20 min · cook 25 min
~699 cal · 6g protein · 81g carbs · 41g fat · 6g fiber · 11g sugars · 36g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Simboro is the everyday, weekday relative of laplap, Vanuatu's national dish. Where laplap is a grand affair, grated root vegetable baked whole in the earth oven for a feast, simboro is quick, small, and cooked on the stove.
Grated or is seasoned and rolled up inside the broad leaves of island cabbage, aelan kabis, like little parcels, then simmered in until the starch turns soft and translucent. The leaves hold their shape and add a green, earthy note.
It is home food, the kind made without ceremony when the family needs feeding, and a good example of how Ni-Vanuatu cooking turns three garden ingredients, , leaf, and coconut, into something comforting and complete.
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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
3 cups grated
12 leaves large leafy greens such as island cabbage, chard, or collard
2 cups
1 onion, sliced
1 tsp salt
Instructions
1
Grate the cassava finely, ideally on a fine grater without holes so none of it is lost, season it with the salt and pepper, and shape spoonfuls into small logs.
✎ Chef’s note
Any of the island starches works and each is traditional somewhere: cassava, sweet potato, taro, yam or plantain. If you use cassava, cut out the tough woody core before grating.
2
Wrap each log in a leaf, or two if they are small, folding to enclose it.
✎ Chef’s note
Blanch tough leaves in boiling water for a few seconds first so they turn pliable and roll without cracking.
3
Lay the parcels seam-down in a pot with the sliced onion.
4
Pour over the coconut cream, bring it to the barest simmer, cover, and cook until the starch is soft and translucent, 20 to 30 minutes.
✎ Chef’s note
Keep the simmer genuinely gentle. Let it boil and the bundles unroll and the whole pot turns into grated starch in coconut milk.
5
Serve warm, spooning the coconut sauce over the parcels.
Ni-Vanuatu home cooking.
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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. Laplap is a paste rather than a dish of pieces: taro, yam, breadfruit or banana grated on a stone or a spiral of bamboo, spread on banana leaves with coconut cream and often pork, beef, chicken or flying fox laid in, then wrapped and buried under hot stones. The communal stone-oven feast around it is called a bunia and is a kastom event.
🌍
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 Vanuatu
Lap LapGrated root vegetables and coconut cream wrapped in banana leaf and baked in an earth oven, Vanuatu's national dish.
TulukGrated cassava wrapped around heavily seasoned pork, bound in leaves and baked, sold by the piece at markets and kava bars.
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.
Browse all Vanuatu recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Pot or saucepan.
Storing it: Stews and braises keep 3 to 4 days refrigerated and often taste better the next day. Reheat gently, adding a splash of water if it has thickened.
Make it a Vanuatu meal
Nakamal KavaDrink
Sweet Banana LaplapDessert
Aelan Kabis (Island Cabbage in Coconut Milk)Dinner
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Frequently asked questions
What is Simboro?
Grated cassava rolled in island-cabbage leaves and simmered in coconut cream, Vanuatu's everyday take on laplap.
Where does Simboro come from?
Simboro is a Ni-Vanuatu dish from Efate (Port Vila), Vanuatu.
Can Simboro be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Simboro 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 Simboro 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 Simboro take to make?
About 45 minutes total (20 minutes prep, 25 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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