We made a large purchase of green bananas one week, and were dismayed when our investment sat green, green... green still for several weeks. They never went bad, they just never got ripe. Finally, I decided they were going to mummify before they ever turned yellow, so as a last ditch before composting them, I decided to research if there were any uses for our ten pounds of green bananas.
It turns out there is a ton of stuff you can use them for, and basically it all comes down to this: treat them like any other starchy vegetable, ie, potatoes. Now, I don't know if you can boil and mash them, but roasting them seemed to be pretty common, so we decided to make french fries!
Green bananas don't peel as easy as nice ripe ones, so the most time consuming part of salvaging these bananas was slicing them open and working the peels off.
A friend of mine stopped by as I was preparing the bananas, and from the crunchy sound of cutting through them, he assumed I was chopping potatoes! They look deceptively soft in the photos. They were actually as crisp as a raw potato.
After peeling, I simply cut each quartered banana in half again, to make a nice wedge shape for roasting. Then I melted coconut oil on a couple of baking sheets, probably a tablespoon on each pan, and spread the bananas out in a single layer. Bake in a 350 degree oven for maybe 20-30 minutes. Honestly, we cook them until they seem done. In our family, we preferred the banana fries that were softer, less on the crunchy side. For more even cooking, we flip our french fries halfway through so both sides brown lightly.
The kids liked theirs with ketchup, and I had mine dipped in homemade guacamole. I know it seems strange, but it ended up being a delicious way to use our green bananas!
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If The World Gives You Green Bananas, Make French Fries!
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Oleh
Mellow
45 comments
Write commentsThat is so creative! Way to be resourceful!
ReplyWow! I never would have thought to make banana fries. Do they still taste like bananas? I would love to try this... but our bananas are very ripe right now. :)
ReplyThanks for sharing this at Living Green, that is where I found you! Have a great day! ~Jordan
When they're green, they really don't taste like bananas!
Replylook a lot like mislabeled plantains....
ReplyMaybe! I've never intentionally bought plantains.
ReplyYes you can boil and mash them or even juat boil them. No need to peel the bananas. Set a pot of water on stove to boil with enough salt. Like spaghetti water. Take a knife and cut off both ends and run the knife along side of the banana to score it. Rinse and place in the boiling water. No need to worry green bananas are high in ir on so your water will turn dark. After about 15-20 minutes the bananas will be done. Drain off the water and the peels should come off very easy. Serve just as you would potatoes. Yummy!
ReplyWow, that sounds great!
ReplyWonderfully innovative- I love the ethos of this blog- will be back soon!
ReplyI have never heard of this before, very interesting. Although, bananas don't usually stay green at our house either...and more often than not I have to throw them in the freezer because they are too ripe :-)
ReplyInteresting. I hate bananas, but my kids would like these!
ReplyYum. And the plate you photo'd them on makes them look even more delicious!
Replyi came across your recipie via punk domestics.
ReplyThose are definately plantains and not bananas!
I'm dying to impart my favorite ethnically adventurous plantain dish.
(google any of these for easy directions)\
Cuban Fufu/ Puerto Rican Mofongo.
boil or fry, (texture choice), then mash or food process with some garlic, sofrito, olive oil, salt, a little chicken stock, and bacon/porcetta/chicharones/pork fat bits. kinda like the most tasty mashed-un-potatoes you've ever dreamed about.
try it!
Sounds great, thanks! What exactly is the difference between green bananas and plantains? I ordered these from our CSA, which never carries plantains. When I looked plantains up, they seemed to be really the same thing, just that we call the type of bananas that don't get sweet "plantains". So, I guess these were plantains! I just figured they were picked too young...
Replysuch a great alternative to french fries...love them!
ReplyThose look delicious! Try making fried green bananas next time- they're superb!
ReplyOh my GOSH! Who knew??!! This is great! We can't wait to try them! Thanks for linking up to "Strut Your Stuff Saturday!" We hope to see you again! -The Sisters
Replynice fruit pics
ReplyI can't believe they never turned yellow! Wow! I love this idea! I love plantains, so I am sure they were delish. I don't think I would do the ketchup thing though, lol. My kids would! Thank you for sharing with us at Healthy 2Day Wednesday! :)
ReplyGreat idea. I found you via the Whole Food Wednesday linky party. I linked in a post about retro prawn cocktails
ReplyHave a super week.
How creative! I never would've thought of this! Bananas are my favorite, and I would've been totally bummed if that many bananas never ripened. But now I know what to do with them if that ever happens! Thanks for sharing at Tiny Tip Tuesday!
ReplyI love this idea! How clever! I wonder if you could serve them with sweet dips as well? Like chocolate? Thanks for sharing with Hearth and Soul!
ReplyBanana's are picked completely green before being shipped. Then in the store or before arrival ethylene gas is sprayed on them so they will ripen. You can ripen them yourself by putting a few very ripe apples (you can use other fruit but apples work really well) with them in a brown paper bag. Chances are yours were missed in the spraying. Unique way to use them up! Posting on FB! :)
ReplyThat is a great explanation! They never got sprayed. If it ever happens again, I'll pair them with some apples to try to ripen them up. Thanks!
Replynice
ReplyThanks for linking up at our Gluten Free Fridays recipe party! I have tweeted and pinned your entry to our Gluten Free Fridays board on Pinterest! :) We are building a great set of gluten free recipes so far! Its making my meal planning easy :) How about yours? See you next Friday! Cindy from vegetarianmamma.com
Replynice pics
ReplyThese look amazing. I absolutely love bananas. I am going to try this for dinner tonight. Thank you so much for sharing with Wednesdays Adorned From Above Link Party last week. This weeks Link Party is opened at
Replyhttp://www.adornedfromabove.com/2012/09/reeses-smore-brownies-and-wednesdays.html
from Wednesday until Sunday.
Hope to see you there.
Debi Bolocofsky
Adorned From Above
www.adornedfromabove.com
very nice
ReplyAwesome recipe, had no idea you could make fries with green bananas. I actually came here via a search looking to see if my 2 week old green bananas will ever ripen and was pleasantly surprised to find an actual use for them!
ReplySounds interesting! If they don't taste like bananas, what DO they taste like?
ReplyAs a person who doesn't like the taste of ripe bananas, perhaps I could try this...
Looks like a great snack!!
ReplyYou can also create a green banana salad in the same way that you would a potato salad. When you boil them and remove them from the water once the skin starts to split open, it is easy to peel the skin off. Just cut into cubes, season and enjoy!
ReplySo, you boil them with the skins on? That sounds a lot easier. They're quite hard to peel when unripe!
ReplyYum. thanks for sharing at Wildcrafting Wednesday.
ReplyJennifer
I love all of your unconventional ways of using food. Thanks for stopping by and sharing!
ReplyRobin @ Fluster Buster
Omg these look amazing! I am a fan of making Plantain bananas and frying them up (the bigger less sweet banana) but I had never known you could fry up regular green bananas. I'll have to try this because I love platanos.
Reply-Brittany Ruth
Never, in my loooong life, have I heard of this. They look amazing, tho.
ReplyThey also look like a totally different type banana than we get. Thanks for sharing this recipe....
over from Home to 4 Kiddos....
They really are normal bananas. They just stayed green and kind of started drying out.
ReplyI've heard bananas are sprayed with something that makes them ripen, since they are picked green for shipment, and it seems like these ones just missed out on that treatment!
Mellow, these look awesome and I can't wait to try them. Thank you so much for sharing with Full Plate Thursday. Hope you are having a great summer weekend and come back to see me real soon!
ReplyMiz Helen
Interesting adaptation! Thanks for sharing this recipe on Tuesday Greens!
ReplyThey most definitely look like plantains to me. So, you actually cooked them how they should be done! Delicious!
ReplyI like how resourceful this is!! Your avocado saving method is awesome too, those tricky things always have me cutting into them too eagerly and much too early! (:
ReplyThanks! :)
ReplyThese are definitely green fig, as they're known throughout the Anglo-Caribbean, and are the pre-bananas. They often don't turn yellow until they're TOO ripe. The only reason the ones in the store are yellow is because they've been dipped in chemical ripener. Plantains are much bigger and not in the banana family.
ReplyEven organic bananas get dipped in a chemical ripener?
ReplyI did not know that plantains weren't related to bananas! Interesting, thanks, Brandi :)