What healthy food can you cook with ingredients from the Pacific? More than you imagine, because a lot of the products growing in the region are, surprisingly, very healthy. From the classic taro root (good for digestion, to lower blood sugar or even fight cancer), to the fishes and sea foods (low in bad fat, full of vitamins, minerals and other good stuff), to vast amounts of fruits with medicinal properties, everything edible around here seems to be good for you.
The two ingredient Tonga pancake recipe from Pasifika platesBest of all, you can buy all these ingredients for cheap at your local market, and they will be be locally grown! Sometimes you might even find organic products…
Now for the recipes, we turn to a great collection of South Pacific recipes published by the Pacific Community (SPC), a diplomatic regional institution, using recipes shared by the government of Fiji “with delicious contributions from ministries of health and civil societies around the Pacific”.
The book is named Pasifika plates, and is a guide both to healthy eating and to regional cooking. It is available in print, but the easiest way is to download it for free on their website :
A few recipes from this free book:
Papua pumpkin buns recipe from Pasifika plates
Tuvalu taro and tuna patties recipe from Pasifika plates
The Honiara KaiKai omelet recipe from Pasifika plates[codepeople-post-map]