Ask AvartsyCooking: What else can you make with Plantains?
Our second Ask AvartsyCooking inquiry this week is courtesy of Ayodeji from London who just received a windfall in the form of plantains and would like to know what else he can make with them apart from fried and boiled plantains. If you’re looking to send in an inquiry of your own, send your question to submit@avartsycooking.com.
Hi Yetunde,
Quick question, do you know any dishes that feature plantain as the main ingredient in the dish as opposed to just boiling, frying or baking as a side dish to some other dish? We happen to have A LOT of plantains in the house at the moment (a lovely guest came around and dropped the very generous gift) and I’m not entirely sure of what to do with them.
It would be nice to know you and your readers thoughts ;)
Thanks
Have a nice dayAyodeji. O
My answer~ The first thing that comes to mind is Plantain Porridge, which has a similar cooking process to Ikokore or Asaro (yam porridge). The only thing is you need to make that with unripe plantains which are still green. However, you neglected to mention if your plantain windfall was green or yellow (ripe or unripe)!
You can make Plantain Porridge with either just unripe or mostly unripe and some ripe. If your plantains are mostly yellow, you can make mashed plantains, which will have a similar cooking process to mashed potatoes, just skipping the milk, cream etc and perhaps using some stock or the water from boiling the plantains to smooth/thin it out a bit.
There is also a Puerto Rican dish called Mofongo (I saw this on a cooking show a couple of years back and meant to try it) made from unripe plantains and garlic. (I linked to a good recipe I googled.)
Should your plantains get too soft before you can finish cooking them all up, you could use them in place of bananas and make Plantain bread, same process as for making banana bread! Make them in cupcake pans for extra effizi!
Dearest readers, please help Ayodeji and share your suggestions in the comments section!
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20 Responses to "Ask AvartsyCooking: What else can you make with Plantains?"
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The plantains are yellow ;)
Ah, well, have a ball making them!
Oooh – I just made oven Bole with a palmoil sauce. Very moorish. I remember dodo ikire from trips my mom used to make to Osogbo when i was younger. I also made banana bread with almost rotten plantains instead of almost rotten bananas.
Hey Uzo!
Dodo Ikire! My only gripe with that is that it’s fried in palm oil, but it’s also very similar to Ghanaian Kelewele. Boli is also another idea, never had it with palm oil sauce before though…
How about jollof beans (sorry this is what we call it in my family! I mean beans cooked in ata base and palm oil with dried shrimp) with boiled plantain. This is healthier than just eating beans with fried dodo, and is a whole meal. It is very similar to ADALU (there is a recipe for that on this site) in style, You basically cook the beans separately according to a regular recipe, boil the plantains separately until almost fully cooked and set aside until the last 10 mins of cooking time for the beans. You then add the plantain and let it cook with the beans for 10 minutes until it is slightly mushy. I like my beans very mushy, but you can cook it to your preferred consistency. You don’t add the plantain at the very beginning like you add corn in Adalu because it cooks much, much faster than the beans will. The plantain sweetens the beans just a bit, and it is delicious with fried goat meat or chicken and a side of steamed veggies.
Hey Sunflowery!
Wow! I love that, totally need to give it a shot!
Thanks for sharing! :)
Anytime, hon!
;)
This is my best meal anytime anyday!!!….d sweetness d plantain gives to the beans is out of this world. But i prefer sing ‘over riped plantain’. i also looooove my beans mushy……lol *salivating seriously*
Lol, your comment had me cracking up! But yes, I agree that the sweetness the plantain gives beans makes it extra tasty…
Hi yetunde
I stumbled on ur site while I googled for african dishes,n my meal has nt remaind the same.
I must say u r really doing a wonderful job,dat aside I made chin chin wt ur recipe n it came out fantastic.
Cnt wait for my hubby to come bck to giv some dats if I dnt finish it b4 he comes bck lol
Thank you and may God bless you richly.
Hey Uche!
Aww, I’m glad to know that! I’m sure everything you try should turn out right, if not, just be sure to leave a comment or email me with any concerns.
Thanks!
Hi Yetunde,
Am I the only one counting down to the launch….and yaaay to a new recipe featuring soon. Oh and the plantains – not much happened to them, most of them ended up being boiled. Was a bit of a chore eating that much plantain to avoid wastage NEVER AGAIN, haha…
Oh and do you do much baking? I’d love it if you could share some low fat/healthy baking recipes – it is a shame a couple have butter/creamy bases.
In other news just two more sleeps (and then a bit because of time difference) to the launch and do we get a timer/countdown tomorrow (ok….I might be a bit too excited).
Take care
Ayodeji. O
Hey you!
Omo, I am on pins and needles and buried up to my eyes in things to finish up. We might not make tomorrow, but we’re hoping loose ends are tied up by the weekend. Lol, I wondered how you ended up cooking the plantains, so thanks for the update.
I am not much of a baker, but I’ve been working on it as I’ve been receiving requests for cakes and such. I don’t have a sweet tooth, so I tend not to care for cakes, pies and all that. You better utilize the site once it launches now! I’ll be keeping an eye on that ;)
Hi Yetty,
How are you doing? Was so looking forward to today that I didn’t even check here before jumping to the new site. Well, it seems we have to wait for a few more days. I’m sure it’ll be worth the wait. Keep up your good work. may the Lord crown all your efforts with resounding success. Cheerio, dearie! See you at the launch.
N.B. Hanging for the new recipe
Hey Ebun!
Lol, we are just tying up some loose ends, should be soon! Thanks for the anticipation too!
A friend and I were looking up plantain recipes yesterday cause he loves plantains. There are so many Dominican/Peurtorican recipes. The one we are thinking of making is this stuffed plantain with ground beef. It looked really really good. They called Beef Plantain Canoes.
Prep Time: 5-10 minutes
Servings: 4
Cooking Time: 30 minutes
Tools Needed: Deep Fryer
4 ripen plantains (soft to the touch, yellow)
1 lb of ground beef
Salt & pepper to taste
½ teaspoon of ginger
1 Maggi chicken bouillon
1 onion, finely chopped
1 green bell pepper, finely chopped
¼ bar of butter
4 tablespoon of Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoon of oil
INSTRUCTIONS
In large skillet, heat oil and sauté onions, green pepper and garlic
Add the ground meat and sauté. Add the water and chicken bullion, salt & pepper and stir
Once meat is cooked and simmered (20 minutes), set aside
Cut both ends of the plantains. Make a shallow slit along the length of the plantain.
Remove peel using your thumb to pull away the peel without reaping. Be careful not to break them. DO NOT DISCARD THE PEEL
Deep fry at medium heat until golden brown
Make a pocket at the curve of the plantains and place them inside the peel. Then, stuff them with the ground meat
Place in a baking dish sprinkle pieces of butter and cheese.
Bake @ 325 degrees for 20 minutes
Serve hot
I havent tried them yet but I will this weekend.
By the way, my friend says he likes plantain and ice cream as a dessert. So Im going to make that for him tmr. Guess twill have to be the really soft plantain so that it can be really sweet and vanilla/pecan ice cream. (sounds weird to me but hey! what can i say? lol)
Hey Joke!
Thanks for sharing the recipe! I got confused for a bit at the part where it says you add them into the plantain peel. It’s interesting, I have no extra ripe plantains, but I’ll keep the recipe in mind for the next batch.
Let me know how you like it though whenever you make it. Hmm, this your friend is enjoying o ;) Soft plantain will also give that sweet stickiness which should mesh well with the ice cream, hey if he likes it, you gotta try you know!
This is the first time I am going through your website and I am excited. Thanks for the good work. I love Nigerian food. I tried to contact you through the “contact us” link but it won’t submit after filling the form. Pls is there an alternative option for contacting you excluding posting comments? Thanks.
Hey Anit!
Thank you and welcome! Thanks for letting me know about the broken link. You can send me an email yetunde@avartsycooking.com