Recipe
🥙 LUNCH
Tuluk
Grated cassava wrapped around heavily seasoned pork, bound in leaves and baked, sold by the piece at markets and kava bars.
Ni-Vanuatu · medium · serves 6
prep 40 min · cook 60 min
~782 cal · 26g protein · 130g carbs · 17g fat · 10g fiber · 26g sugars · 10g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Tuluk is the closest thing Vanuatu has to a meat pie, and it is the one traditional dish built to be eaten one-handed. It belongs to Paama Island, where it originates, but it is loved across the archipelago and turns up wherever people gather: the food stalls at the back of Port Vila market, run by the Mamas who cook fresh every morning, and the nakamals in the evening, where a piece of tuluk is the wasem maot, the mouth-wash, that takes the bitterness of kava off the tongue.
It works by contrast. is grated to a coarse paste and pressed out into a dense, faintly sweet, slightly chewy casing, and inside goes pork, shredded and seasoned hard with spring onion and herbs until it is far punchier than the dough around it. Wrapped in leaves and cooked in the ground oven alongside everything else, the two hold each other in balance.
Almost all Vanuatu kastom food is communal: lap lap is baked as a great flat wheel and shared out, and how it is divided says something about the group. Tuluk is the exception. It is made individually, portioned before it is cooked, and meant to be carried away in one hand.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally gluten-, dairy- and egg-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 (manioc), peeled and finely grated
1 lb pork shoulder, finely shredded or minced
6 spring onions, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 cup
to taste salt and black pepper
6 large pieces banana leaves, softened over a flame
Hard to find? baking parchment inside a layer of foil - it will hold the parcel and steam it perfectly well; what you lose is the faint grassy scent the leaf leaves behind. Frozen banana leaves keep for months and most Asian and Caribbean grocers stock them
Instructions
1
Grate the peeled cassava finely, then squeeze the pulp firmly in a cloth to drive out as much liquid as you can.
✎ Chef’s note
Squeeze it harder than feels necessary. Grated cassava holds a surprising amount of water, and a wet paste will not hold its shape around the filling.
2
Season the pork hard with the spring onion, garlic, salt and plenty of pepper, and fry it until browned and cooked through.
✎ Chef’s note
Over-season it by the standards of the meat alone. The cassava around it is bland and faintly sweet by design, and it will flatten anything timid.
3
Mix the coconut cream through the grated cassava with a good pinch of salt to make a stiff, mouldable paste.
4
Pass each softened banana leaf briefly over a flame until it turns glossy and pliable, then press a handful of the cassava paste out flat on it, spoon a line of pork down the middle, and fold the paste over the filling to enclose it.
✎ Chef’s note
Take the leaves over the flame first or they crack as you fold. A few seconds a side is enough; you are looking for the colour to deepen and the leaf to go limp.
5
Wrap each parcel tightly in its leaf, tuck the ends under, and bake at 350F for about an hour, or steam them, until the cassava has turned firm and slightly translucent.
✎ Chef’s note
Translucent is the doneness cue. Raw grated cassava is opaque and chalky white, and it clears as it cooks; if it still looks chalky in the middle, give it longer.
6
Let them settle a few minutes, then unwrap and eat warm, in the hand.
Paama Island, by way of the Port Vila market stalls.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Efate (Port Vila). Vanuatu is a chain of more than eighty islands and the pantry is whatever grows on volcanic soil and whatever the reef gives up: taro, yam, breadfruit, coconut and fish. Kava, pounded from a pepper root, is drunk at dusk in nakamals rather than with a meal, and it is not alcohol.
🗺️
Vanuatu. Kava is not a novelty here but a nightly institution, drunk at dusk in low-lit nakamals where conversation drops to a murmur out of respect for the drink. Pentecost and Tanna are the two islands where the greatest number of cultivars were developed, and the traditions at the northern and southern ends of the archipelago are distinct enough that researchers treat them separately.
🌍
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 Vanuatu
Lap LapGrated root vegetables and coconut cream wrapped in banana leaf and baked in an earth oven, Vanuatu's national dish.
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.
Browse all Vanuatu recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Oven, Steamer.
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
Aelan Kabis (Island Cabbage in Coconut Milk)Dinner
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Cuisine
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Frequently asked questions
What is Tuluk?
Grated cassava wrapped around heavily seasoned pork, bound in leaves and baked, sold by the piece at markets and kava bars.
Where does Tuluk come from?
Tuluk is a Ni-Vanuatu dish from Efate (Port Vila), Vanuatu.
Can Tuluk be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Tuluk 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 Tuluk 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 Tuluk take to make?
About 100 minutes total (40 minutes prep, 60 minutes cooking), serving 6.
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