Chef Makoa
Baked ʻUala (Hawaiian Sweet Potato in the Embers)
Whole Hawaiian ʻuala baked in embers or a hot oven until the skins char and the flesh goes honey-soft, finished plain with paʻakai so the canoe crop tastes like itself.
Culinary Explorer
A cooking platform built around craft, culture, and the stories behind what we eat.
Baked ʻUlu (Hawaiian Roasted Breadfruit)
Created by
Hawaiʻi's ʻulu, breadfruit, roasted whole until the skin blackens and the inside turns soft and bread-like, the old canoe crop made real for a weeknight oven.
Side Dishes
Polynesian, Hawaiian
Comfort Food
Budget Friendly
Weeknight
10 min
Active Time
1 hr 15 min cook•1 hr 25 min total
Yield4 to 6 servings
My kumu used to say, eat what you have, and when the ʻulu tree is giving, you listen. In Hawaiʻi, ʻulu, breadfruit, is not just something filling to put beside the fish. It's a canoe crop, a relative carried over salt water, planted so the people could stay fed after the canoe was pulled up on shore.
This is the Hawaiian hand with it: roast the whole fruit until the green skin goes dark and tight, then split it open and let the soft starch show itself. In Sāmoa and Tonga the cousins know ʻulu too, Tahiti calls it ʻuru, the Marquesas keep mei close to the heart, and the Cook Islands have kuru. One ocean, one canoe, one root, even when each island cooks it in its own way.
For a real imu, the Hawaiian earth oven, the fruit would sit near the heat with leaf and stone doing the slow work. Most of us are in a kitchen tonight, so the oven does the job. No shame in that. You still give it time, you still turn it once, and you still wait until a knife slides in without argument.
Serve it plain with paʻakai, sea salt, and butter if that's what the table wants. Coconut cream is good too. Next to kālua puaʻa, fish, stew, eggs, or just by itself, ʻulu feeds you steady. Deep food is not fancy. It's faithful.
Breadfruit was one of the great Polynesian canoe crops, moved by voyagers across the Pacific and established through much of the Triangle, especially in Hawaiʻi, Sāmoa, Tonga, Tahiti, the Marquesas, and the Cook Islands. In Hawaiʻi, famous groves such as the Kona field system fed dense communities before imported wheat and rice pushed many deep foods to the side. Roasting ʻulu whole keeps an older starch practice alive in a modern kitchen: bread off the tree, not from a bag.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
mature firm ʻulu (breadfruit)
Quantity
1 (2 to 3 pounds)
stem trimmed
neutral oil or melted coconut oil (optional)
Quantity
1 tablespoon
for rubbing the skin
butter or coconut cream (optional)
Quantity
1 to 2 tablespoons
for serving
paʻakai (sea salt)
Quantity
to taste
freshly cracked black pepper (optional)
Quantity
to taste
lime wedge (optional)
Quantity
1
for serving
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| mature firm ʻulu (breadfruit)stem trimmed | 1 (2 to 3 pounds) |
| neutral oil or melted coconut oil (optional)for rubbing the skin | 1 tablespoon |
| butter or coconut cream (optional)for serving | 1 to 2 tablespoons |
| paʻakai (sea salt) | to taste |
| freshly cracked black pepper (optional) | to taste |
| lime wedge (optional)for serving | 1 |
Equipment Needed
- •Rimmed half-sheet pan
- •Small sharp paring knife for venting and testing
- •Heavy towel or heatproof gloves for handling the whole roasted fruit
Instructions
- 1
Choose the ʻulu
Pick a mature firm ʻulu, green to yellow-green, heavy for its size, with the little skin segments filled out and only a slight give under your thumb. If it's rock hard, it needs more days. If it's very soft and sweet-smelling, save that one for dessert or mash, because this roasting wants starch, not sugar.
A little sap is normal. Oil your knife if you need to trim the stem, and wipe sticky latex with a little cooking oil before washing. - 2
Heat the oven
Heat the oven to 400F. Rinse the ʻulu and dry it well. Rub the skin lightly with oil if you want a cleaner, glossier roast, then set it on a rimmed baking sheet. Prick it 6 to 8 times with a small knife so pressure has somewhere to go.
- 3
Roast it whole
Roast the ʻulu whole for 60 to 80 minutes, turning once halfway through, until the skin darkens, tightens, and blackens in patches. Don't panic at the color. That's the outside doing its work while the inside turns soft and bread-like.
- 4
Test the center
Slide a thin knife through the side toward the center. It should go in easy, with the same give as a baked potato, no hard core fighting you. If the knife catches, give it another 10 to 15 minutes. No blame the ʻulu. It just wasn't done yet.
- 5
Rest and split
Let the ʻulu rest 10 minutes so the starch settles. Split it lengthwise, pull out the central core, and peel away the dark skin. The flesh should be pale cream to warm yellow, soft enough to break apart in big wedges, with a light sheen where the heat opened it.
- 6
Season and serve
Cut the warm ʻulu into wedges or rough chunks. Dress it simply with butter or coconut cream, paʻakai, and pepper if you like. A squeeze of lime wakes it up, but don't bury it. Let the breadfruit taste like itself, steady and quiet, the way good starch should.
Chef Tips
- •Maturity matters more than seasoning. A firm mature ʻulu roasts up like bread and potato together; an overripe one turns sweet and soft, still good, just a different food.
- •No imu in the yard? The oven is fine. The thing you keep is patience: whole fruit, steady heat, no rushing the center.
- •Leftover roasted ʻulu is good food. Pan-fry slices for breakfast, mash it with coconut cream, or tuck chunks beside eggs, fish, stew, or plate lunch. We no waste a canoe crop.
Advance Preparation
- •Roast the ʻulu up to 2 days ahead, cool it, peel and core it, then refrigerate in covered chunks.
- •To reheat, pan-fry wedges in a little oil or butter until the edges go crisp and the inside is warm and soft.
- •Do not cut raw ʻulu far ahead unless you are ready to cook it; the exposed flesh oxidizes and the sap gets sticky.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 160g)
Calories
245 calories
Total Fat
7 g
Saturated Fat
5 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
2 g
Cholesterol
10 mg
Sodium
260 mg
Total Carbohydrates
49 g
Dietary Fiber
9 g
Sugars
20 g
Protein
2 g
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