Sunday, June 17, 2012

If The World Gives You Green Bananas, Make French Fries!


green banana french fries

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.

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!

chopped green bananas

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.

peel green bananas

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.

chopped green bananas

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.


green banana french fries

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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45 comments

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June 18, 2012 at 7:56 PM

That is so creative! Way to be resourceful!

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Anonymous
June 19, 2012 at 10:35 AM

Wow! 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. :)
Thanks for sharing this at Living Green, that is where I found you! Have a great day! ~Jordan

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June 19, 2012 at 10:46 AM

When they're green, they really don't taste like bananas!

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June 20, 2012 at 1:20 PM

look a lot like mislabeled plantains....

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June 20, 2012 at 4:04 PM

Maybe! I've never intentionally bought plantains.

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June 20, 2012 at 5:19 PM

Yes 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!

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June 21, 2012 at 12:15 AM

Wonderfully innovative- I love the ethos of this blog- will be back soon!

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June 21, 2012 at 3:36 AM

I 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 :-)

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June 21, 2012 at 4:37 AM

Interesting. I hate bananas, but my kids would like these!

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June 21, 2012 at 7:17 AM

Yum. And the plate you photo'd them on makes them look even more delicious!

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Anonymous
June 23, 2012 at 5:55 AM

i came across your recipie via punk domestics.

Those 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!

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June 23, 2012 at 8:17 AM

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...

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June 26, 2012 at 8:03 PM

such a great alternative to french fries...love them!

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June 26, 2012 at 10:43 PM

Those look delicious! Try making fried green bananas next time- they're superb!

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June 27, 2012 at 6:07 PM

Oh 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

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June 29, 2012 at 1:24 PM

I 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! :)

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July 1, 2012 at 7:04 PM

Great idea. I found you via the Whole Food Wednesday linky party. I linked in a post about retro prawn cocktails
Have a super week.

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July 2, 2012 at 12:29 PM

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!

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July 3, 2012 at 4:24 AM

I 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!

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August 7, 2012 at 12:53 PM

Banana'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! :)

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August 7, 2012 at 4:26 PM

That 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!

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September 4, 2012 at 12:07 PM

Thanks 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

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September 12, 2012 at 9:16 AM

These 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
http://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

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March 11, 2013 at 9:06 AM

Awesome 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!

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March 26, 2013 at 8:38 PM

Sounds interesting! If they don't taste like bananas, what DO they taste like?
As a person who doesn't like the taste of ripe bananas, perhaps I could try this...

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May 16, 2013 at 10:25 AM

You 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!

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May 16, 2013 at 9:59 PM

So, you boil them with the skins on? That sounds a lot easier. They're quite hard to peel when unripe!

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May 18, 2013 at 7:10 PM

Yum. thanks for sharing at Wildcrafting Wednesday.
Jennifer

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June 20, 2013 at 5:24 AM

I love all of your unconventional ways of using food. Thanks for stopping by and sharing!

Robin @ Fluster Buster

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June 25, 2013 at 12:25 AM

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.

-Brittany Ruth

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bj
June 25, 2013 at 6:49 AM

Never, in my loooong life, have I heard of this. They look amazing, tho.
They also look like a totally different type banana than we get. Thanks for sharing this recipe....
over from Home to 4 Kiddos....

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June 26, 2013 at 11:23 PM

They really are normal bananas. They just stayed green and kind of started drying out.
I'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!

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July 13, 2013 at 3:45 PM

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!
Miz Helen

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September 7, 2013 at 1:22 PM

Interesting adaptation! Thanks for sharing this recipe on Tuesday Greens!

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October 3, 2013 at 6:29 AM

They most definitely look like plantains to me. So, you actually cooked them how they should be done! Delicious!

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October 3, 2015 at 12:22 PM

I 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! (:

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January 19, 2018 at 11:25 AM

These 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.

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January 26, 2018 at 6:46 AM

Even organic bananas get dipped in a chemical ripener?
I did not know that plantains weren't related to bananas! Interesting, thanks, Brandi :)

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