Traditional food of Comoros: 13 dishes to know

Comorian food is built on fish, coconut, rice, cassava and green banana, with vanilla, cloves and cinnamon from the "Perfume Islands". Swahili, Malagasy, Arab, Indian and French cooking all left traces. The most emblematic dishes are langouste à la vanille, the fish and plantain stew m'tsolola, poulet au coco and the coconut flatbread mkatra foutra.

Updated 2026-10-124 min read

What Comorian food is built on

Comorian cuisine covers the dishes of the independent Comoros and of Mayotte, the island of the same archipelago that is still administered by France. It reflects every group that settled or traded there: Swahili- and Austronesian-speaking peoples, settlers from Oman and present-day Iran, Indians, Portuguese and the French, who ran the Comoros until independence in 1975.

The base is the sea and the garden. Many species of fish, especially tuna and cod, and crustaceans such as crab and lobster go into soups and stews, usually cooked with root crops like cassava and green banana. Coconut, called *nazi* in some Comorian languages, runs through a wide range of dishes. The islands are nicknamed the "Perfume Islands" for the vanilla, ylang-ylang, cloves and nutmeg grown there.

More than 95% of Comorians are Sunni Muslims. Pork and blood are illegal, and drinking alcohol in public is generally frowned upon, even though drinks can be found in some places, such as the large Volo-Volo market in Moroni.

Fish and seafood

• Langouste à la vanille — Spiny lobster split in half, cooked in butter, then finished in a cream sauce infused with a whole Comorian vanilla pod, seeds and all, and served on white rice. It is the dish most often named as the national dish. Reference works describe it as one of the French-influenced seafood dishes that became popular in recent decades, especially on Mayotte.
• M'tsolola — Firm-fleshed fish such as swordfish, cooked in coconut milk with plantains and spinach or native greens such as *matava*, cassava leaves. It is a typical example of the Comorian way of pairing fish with green banana and roots.
• Roti ya houma pampa — Dried salt cod, rehydrated and then simmered slowly in a *rougail*, a sauce of onion and tomato. It is one of the fish stews eaten with cassava or green banana.
• Mataba — Young cassava leaves pounded and cooked in coconut milk with zebu meat or fish, a traditional dish of the whole archipelago, especially Grande Comore. It is eaten with white rice. Its Malagasy equivalent is *ravitoto*, and on Mayotte it is cooked in large quantities ahead of weddings.

Chicken, beef and rice

• Poulet au coco — Chicken cooked in coconut cream, known in Malagasy as *akoho sy voanio*, a dish that originates in Madagascar. Our version rubs the chicken with lime and turmeric, rests it, then simmers it down in coconut milk. It is served with pilaou or boiled cassava.
• Mshakiki — Marinated beef on skewers. It bears strong similarities to the *mishkaki* of Kenya and Tanzania, and is one of the most prominent meat dishes of the islands.
• Pilaou — A fragrant rice pilaf that came from the nearby Zanzibar archipelago. It is one of the popular accompaniments to meat dishes such as mshakiki and poulet au coco, and is sometimes compared to biryani.
• Achard — *Achard aux légumes*, a tangy pickle of lemon or green mango. Like pilaou, it is one of the popular accompaniments to Comorian meat dishes.

Breads and sweets

• Mkatra foutra — A breakfast flatbread whose yeasted batter is made with coconut milk instead of water, cooked on a griddle under a layer of sesame seeds. The batter rests about an hour until it bubbles, which keeps the bread light. It is eaten warm at breakfast, or next to a stew.
• Mkatra siniya — A Comorian spice cake, listed with shihondro and ladu among the desserts of the islands.
• Shihondro — A candy of caramelised peanuts, one of the sweets eaten across the islands.
• Ladu — Small balls of cashew and rice with a hint of black pepper, a dessert related to the Indian laddu.

Teas and juices

• Thé — In the Comoros, "tea" (*thé*, or *tchayi*) often means an infusion of native herbs rather than a drink made from tea leaves. The classics are *mani ya mdarassini*, made from cinnamon leaves, and *mani ya sandze*, made from lemongrass. Fruit juices such as jackfruit, guava, papaya and mango are the other everyday drinks.

Grande Comore, Mayotte and the islands

The same cuisine runs across the four islands, with local accents. On Grande Comore, mataba with zebu or fish is a classic over white rice. In Moroni, the capital, the large Volo-Volo market is where produce and fish are sold. On Mayotte, the French-administered island, langouste à la vanille became popular in recent decades, and street cooks, mostly women, grill skewers of chicken, zebu, goat or fish such as swordfish and tuna, served with achard and *bata-bata*.

*Bata-bata* is the word for cassava, green banana or breadfruit boiled or steamed in water, the starch under most Comorian meals; ripe bananas are fried or steamed instead. Rice, cassava, bananas and sweet potatoes are the main staples, and fish is grilled, fried, or cooked in stews and curries.

Cook Comorian food at home

Langouste à la vanille is the dish most often called the national dish of Comoros, though everyday cooking leans more on fish stews, coconut chicken and rice. Other popular dishes include *mabawa*, grilled chicken wings. Copper has full recipes for langouste à la vanille, poulet au coco and mkatra foutra, with ingredients and step-by-step methods, on our page about the food of Comoros, alongside other East African recipes.

Mshakiki and pilaou come from the Swahili coast, and coconut curries link the archipelago to the other Indian Ocean islands. Compare with the traditional food of Kenya and the traditional food of Seychelles.

The recipes

• Langouste à la vanille🇰🇲 Comoros · 35 minutes
• Mkatra foutra🇰🇲 Comoros · 1 hour and 50 minutes
• Poulet au coco🇰🇲 Comoros · 2 hours

Questions people ask

Keep reading

• What is the national dish of Comoros?
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Sources

1. Comorian cuisine — Wikipedia
2. Cuisine comorienne — Wikipédia (fr)
3. Langouste a la Vanille: Recipe of Comoros' National Dish — Remitly
4. Mataba — Wikipédia (fr)
5. Cuisine mahoraise — Wikipédia (fr)

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