Niue, eating vegetarian from a plantation

Last month we returned to Niue for a holiday, and one of the first things we did was a Plantation Tour with Tony, like seven year ago, to stock up with local produce for a plant based diet. Naturally we started with some fresh coconut to drink.

And some marshmallow coconut to eat. 

We took back quite a lot of young coconuts, from a small one I could get two big glasses of coconut water, if it was a bit bigger two and an half glasses.

After drinking we used the tender flesh, you can just eat it as it is, or use it in cooking (the best was to pan-fry it with olive oil and smoked salt and eat it as 'vegan bacon'. Then we gave the shells to the cat and it cleaned it up! Never seen a cat eating coconut!

Click here for more coconut recipes and creations in Niue.

Next was taro, so much taro, white and pink!

And cassava, a white and a yellow type (I prefer the yellow).

And a type of wild spring onion, very tasty. We also got some basil.

Ginger abounds too, if you are keen.

And this is our bounty!

Taro is very starchy and filling, I made some salads, one with boiled taro, olive oil, salt, basil and spring onions. 

And one with boiled taro, mayo and spring onions.

I also boiled the cassava and then roasted half with olive oil and salt, while the other half I mushed and mixed with falafel mix to make veggie burgers (ok, they don't look 'pretty' but they were pretty good). More recipes here.

No much tropical fruit around a part from bananas, papaya and coconut, but I loved the papayas with a drizzle of Niue Honey and lime or lemon juice.

And for dessert: papaya, banana and young coconut flesh fruit salad, with rum and a little sugar. 

And here something we DIDN"T eat: Uga crab.

And some pretty fish!

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

A Vegetarian in Niue

Sometimes it is hard to be a Vegetarian when traveling in the Pacific: the island diet is very much based on fish, and meat. When we went to Rarotonga we rented a guesthouse with a kitchen, and that was a great idea: we could take our dry food, and buy fresh produce there. So we did the same in Niue, since there aren't many restaurants there, and the veggie options are limited. To eat out go to the Crazy Uga cafe in Alofi (the only one) open Mon-Sat, for breakfast and lunch, no many options for Vegans (unless you stick to baked beans only) but they can make coffee with soy milk :-). The Alofi Swan Son supermarket is expensive but stocks pasta, rice, canned Italian beans and tomato sauces, and even tofu (when we were there). On Sunday go to the Washaway cafe in Avatele for lunch (since it is only open on a Sunday), everybody seems to meet there, the menu is not veggie friendly, but they made some vegetarian focaccia for us, on request. There is also a tiny Indian restaurant in Alofi, Gill's, and they have a few vegan and vegetarian dishes, eat in or take-away. Finally the Matavai in Avatele, the only resort in the Island, has a formal restaurant with a veggie option each for starters and for mains.

To stock up with fresh produce I advice that you book a plantation tour with Tony Aholina, A5 Tours, Mutalau Village, Tel 683 3343 A5tony@hotmail.com, not only you will learn much about plant food in Niue, Tony will also give you some food from his plantation: taro, cassava, banana, papaya, coconuts, greens and more.

One of the things I liked most was to see, for the first time, vanilla plants. Niue vanilla is lovely, the orchids grow around trees and the fresh vanilla pods look like green beans. Tony cars was full of vanilla sticks, he and the other islanders have so many that they also use them as air fresheners for the car and the house.

Taro is the Island staple, usually baked or boiled, it is quite starchy and very filling. Being Italian I always travel with a small bottle of olive oil, so after boiling my taro I dressed it with olive oil, salt flakes and chopped spring onions. At home in New Zealand I have some giant taro in my garden, I was always told that it is not so tasty, only decorative, but Tony told me that I could eat it, and maybe I will try :-).

Tony also gave us some greens, a sort of big brassica leaves which I boiled and then dressed with olive oil, lemon juice and salt. I am sure that soy sauce would have been good too, but I didn't have any. And the cassava roots, another starchy food, baked they were lovely, there are the white and the yellow type, we tried the yellow and they tasted a bit like sweet potatoes. We also learned to pick and cook breadfruit (breadfruit trees are everywhere in the Island), you can find a recipe here, and for coconut .... well, you can eat coconut in 1000 different ways, click here for some examples.

You can also buy fresh produce in the Farmers Market in Alofi, every Tuesday and Friday morning, but remember that this market is very small so you need to get there at 6:30-7am to get the best produce. You can also buy some warm coconut and arrowroot porridge, a good Vegan breakfast. In the market you can also find eggs, fried bread, cakes and a few souvenirs.

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©