If you love Luau Stew, you'll also love Squid Luau. Made from luau leaves, onions, squid (or octopus), sugar, salt, and coconut milk, Squid Luau is a popular Hawaiian dish served at many restaurants. It's a delicious stew dish, savory with a hint of sweetness. It's best served warm over a big bowl of rice!
Why This Recipe Works
Hooray for Squid Luau! We love this dish and you'll find it on the menu at all the Hawaiian restaurants around town.
We order squid luau from Helena's Hawaiian Food, and from Yama's Fish Market. You can buy squid luau by the container or have it served as part of a classic Hawaiian Plate Lunch. We also make squid luau at home!
Squid luau is a saucy, stew-like dish that great spooned over hot rice. It's primarily savory but there is a hint of sweetness from the addition of coconut milk and sugar.
If you're familiar with Luau Stew, squid luau is pretty similar except we use squid or tako (octopus)* instead of chicken, beef, pork, or no meat. Squid luau also differs from luau stew in that luau stew doesn't have coconut milk or sugar.
*Even though this dish is called squid luau, it commonly features octopus instead of squid. You can use either.
This is a straightforward and easy to make dish. It's also flexible in terms of volume, you can easily double or triple the recipe.
Feel free to adjust the salt and sugar levels to your preference (not everyone likes or is accustomed to the extra touch of sweetness in squid luau). Best part? Everything is cooked in one pot!
Luau Leaves
Before we get into the details of this recipe, I wanted to go over the key ingredient in Squid Luau. It is the luau leaves! Luau leaves are the leaves that come from the kalo (taro) plant.
If you've made Luau Stew and/or Lau Lau, then you already know how to prepare luau leaves. But if not, now is a good time to learn.
First, read our post about Luau Leaves (which are not to be confused with Ti Leaves).
When preparing these big gorgeous leaves, I like to first put on disposable gloves. Working with raw luau leaves can leave your hands pretty itchy!
Separate the leaves and the stem (= use a knife to cut it). Then wash the leaves and stems throughly. Dry the leaves and stems.
Next step is to cut the the leaves. Pile all the leaves on top of each other and roll them up tightly. Then use a knife to chop them into 1-inch wide ribbons.
From there you can cut the leaves into smaller pieces.
Next, we prepare the stems. If you are in a rush (or lazy), you can discard the stems. But it is pretty wasteful to discard the stems. So budget extra time if you can to prepare the stems.
After washing the stems, use a small knife to peel off the thicker outer layer of the stem. Then cut the stem into ½ inch pieces.
Now your luau leaves and stems are ready for cooking!
Ingredients
Here are the ingredients you'll need to make Squid Luau:
- Luau leaves
- Onion
- Squid or tako (octopus) - Even though it's called squid luau, this traditional version of this dish uses octopus. Nowadays you'll find squid luau made with either squid or octopus. It's delicious either way.
- Hawaiian sea salt or kosher salt
- Sugar (optional) - Sugar is pretty standard in all the squid luau dishes sold in Hawaii. However I noticed that people who aren't used to eating squid luau (or Hawaiian food in general) sometimes find it a little too sweet. So if you're making this at home you can omit the sugar if preferred.
- Coconut milk - Make sure you use the full fat canned coconut milk (not the type coconut milk you use with coffee, lattes, etc).
Got all your ingredients in place? Now we can start cooking.
Step by Step Directions
Here are the step by step instructions, it's pretty straightforward.
Clean and prepare the luau leaves.
Wash the leaves very thoroughly. Chop off and discard the stems (or you can keep and use the stems, see section above on how to prep the stems). Chop the luau leaves into ribbons. Set aside.
Saute onions, add luau leaves (and stems).
In a large saucepan, saute the onions. Once the onions are slightly softened, add the luau stems (if using). Then add the luau leaves.
Add water and simmer.
Add water. Bring to a boil and then simmer with the lid on the pot. Cook for 1 hour. Make sure to check the dish every 20 minutes and add more water if it looks dry.
Add salt and sugar.
When the leaves are full cooked and soft/tender in texture, add the salt and sugar.
Protip: Cook the luau leaves for longer if you like the leaves very soft and more blended (almost like creamed spinach in texture). I actually prefer the dish this super soft way and do that when we are not in a rush for time.
Add squid or tako (octopus).
Stir in squid or tako (octopus) slices. Cook for another few minutes until the squid or tako is warmed through.
Add coconut milk.
Stir in coconut milk. Cook for another few minutes (make sure it doesn't boil, you don't want coconut milk to boil). Then it's ready to eat!
Eat and enjoy.
Serve with rice ^_^
FAQs and Tips
2-3 days in the refrigerator, in a sealed container. Reheat over the stove over medium heat or in the microwave in 30 second increments (make sure to stir between each round of microwaving).
You always need rice to go with squid luau! For me, the two go hand in hand. I love spooning a big portion of squid luau right over a bowl of rice. One bowl meal, so satisfying.
For a really super complete meal, pair the squid luau with rice plus a number of other dishes like:
- Poi (you can serve poi in addition to rice or instead of rice).
- Lomi Lomi Salmon
- Kalua Pig
- Luau Stew
- Lau Lau
- Haupia or Kulolo for dessert.
Oh man, we love luau leaves in Hawaii. When stewed for a long time, they become melty soft and incredibly delicious. Luau leaves are one of my favorite vegetables. Here are other dishes made with luau leaves:
- Lau Lau
- Luau Stew
You'll notice that uncooked luau leaves are a beautiful bright and earthy green in color. Once you cook them the leaves get much darker and less green in color. If keeping the green color is important to you, just add a pinch of baking soda. Add the baking soda at the same time you add the water (Step 3 in the full recipe at the end of this post).
Squid Luau Recipe
See below and enjoy ^_^
Squid Luau
If you love Luau Stew, you’ll also love Squid Luau. Made from luau leaves, onions, squid (or octopus), sugar, salt, and coconut milk, Squid Luau is a popular Hawaiian dish served at many restaurants. It’s a delicious stew dish, both savory with a hint of sweetness. It’s best served warm with a big bowl of rice!
Ingredients
- 1 pound luau leaves
- 1 sweet onion, diced
- 1 pound squid or tako (octopus), cooked
- 1 teaspoon Hawaiian sea salt or kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon sugar (optional)
- 1 cup coconut milk
Instructions
- Clean and prepare the luau leaves. Wash the leaves very thoroughly. Chop off and discard the stems (or you can keep and use the stems, see note below). Chop the luau leaves into 1-inch ribbons. Set aside.
- In a large saucepan over medium-high head, add a little oil and saute the diced onions for a few minutes. Once the onions are slightly softened, add the luau stems (if using). Then add the luau leaves.
- Add 1 cup water. Bring to a boil and then simmer with the lid on the pot. Cook for 1 hour. Check every 20 minutes and add more water if it looks dry.
- When the leaves are soft and tender, add salt and sugar. Note: you can cook the luau leaves for longer if you like the leaves really soft and more blended (almost like creamed spinach in texture), I actually prefer it that way and do that when we are not in a rush for time.
- Stir in the cooked squid or tako (octopus) slices. Cook for another few minutes over medium heat until the squid or tako is warmed through.
- Stir in coconut milk. Cook for another few minutes. Then it's ready to eat! Serve with rice.
Notes
Want to keep the stems from the luau leaves?
All you need to do is peel off the thicker outer layer (use a small knife to do this). Then chop the stems into ½ inch long pieces.
For this recipe, add the stems into the pan to cook after the onions are soft (and before you add in the luau leaves).
On your "Ti Leaf Versus Luau Leaf" article, you stated "Make sure to fully cook the leaves (better to overcook than undercook luau leaves)."
I'm really looking forward to trying this, but wanted to be extra careful and double check if "preparing" in your first step to "Clean and prepare the luau leaves." meant to also have an initial cooking session for them?
Or is the cooking in step 3, "Add 1 cup water. Bring to a boil and then simmer with the lid on the pot. Cook for 1 hour." sufficient to cook the leaves?