Buljol is a Trinidadian breakfast salad of soaked, flaked saltfish tossed raw (uncooked) with tomato, onion, sweet and hot peppers, olive oil, and lime. Bright, fresh, and fiery, it is typically eaten with coconut bake or fried bake. The name comes from French patois for 'burnt mouth.'
Buljol is the Trini Saturday and Sunday breakfast, bright and waking-up food eaten with hot bake and cocoa tea. For Black American users it shows the salt-cod tradition at its freshest — saltfish not as something heavy and fried, but as a light, vegetable-forward salad.
Because the saltfish is dressed raw rather than fried, buljol is one of the lower-fat ways to eat salt cod — lean protein dense in iodine, selenium, and B12, with no added cooking oil. The raw tomato, onion, and pepper bring vitamin C, lycopene, and quercetin with their fiber and antioxidants intact. The whole salad is fresh and nutrient-forward; the single lever to manage is the saltfish sodium.
Soak and boil saltfish to remove most of the salt, then flake finely. Toss with diced tomato, thinly sliced onion, sweet pepper, scotch bonnet, fresh herbs, a little olive oil, and lime juice. Some pour boiling water over the onion first to soften its bite. Serve with bake.
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