How to Cook Plantains : Grilling and Baking

How to Cook Plantains : Grilling and Baking
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Choosing

When you’re out there buying plantains, you would notice that they come in three different colors. Green plantains are not ripe yet. Plantains with a golden shade of yellow are in the process of ripening. If plantains are yellowish-black, they are fully ripe.

If you’re new to the game and have chosen green plantains, you would find it difficult to separate the peel from the fruit. To make peeling easier, you would want to cut the ends off and then slice the peel in a vertical manner, so that you could pull the peel back easily to detach it from the fruit. Yellowing and black plantains are much easier to peel.

If you’ve inadvertently chosen green plantains and do not wish to cook it as such, you could leave in a place where it could be exposed to sunlight to speed up the ripening process. Don’t expose it to direct sunlight where the heat could rise well above room temperature.

Furthermore, do not leave unripe plantains in the refrigerator, as it would interrupt the natural ripening process when they are returned to room temperature. Ripe plantains may be kept in the refrigerator if you aren’t consuming them in the next few days. Don’t be alarmed if the peel darkens as this does not diminish the nutrient content. Before cooking refrigerated plantains, allow them to return to room temperature first.

Now that you’ve appropriately made your selection, let’s get on with how to cook plantains the healthy way.

Grilling

Grilling is a healthy way of preparing plantains. You would want to be careful with the manner of slicing the plantains for grilling. You would want to slice the plantain vertically first before slicing them horizontally into at least two-inch pieces.

This would prevent the pieces from falling through the grate holes and end up charred. You would also want to apply margarine or butter to the grate to prevent the plantain pieces from sticking to the grate.

Preheat the grate to a reasonably high temperature before placing the plantain pieces on it with the help of tongs. Turn them over as often as needed until they become soft and turn a golden brown. As soon as you’re sure that the plantains are cooked, remove them from the grate.

Baking

If you don’t have much time to spare, you could resort to baking as another healthy way of cooking plantains. Firstly, you would want to lightly coat the plantains with oil (olive oil preferred). Cut a sheet of aluminum foil and line the baking tray. This would save you the trouble of cleaning up the tray later.

Spread out the oil-coated plantain pieces on the foil. Cook from 15 to 20 minutes at a temperature of about 350 degrees Fahrenheit. To give your chips a crispy feel, set oven to broil about two minutes before you finish cooking.

References

https://www.truestarhealth.com/Notes/3616008.html - cooking plantains

https://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=7 information on storing and refrigerating plantains