There are days when even the most enthusiastic cook craves the simplest of foods. Foods that are utterly easy and incredibly fast to make and yet taste divinely delicious.
Starchy veggies like potatoes and plantains hold immense potential for the time-strapped cook. They taste amazing and are very versatile. Most of us know that about potatoes which we mash, bake, fry, boil, saute, blend and grate all around the world into bogglingly delicious dishes. But plantains, fairly common now in supermarkets, continue to be perceived as these rather exotic entities that not many among us honestly know what on earth to do with. Which is rather strange, really, when you consider the fact that bananas -- also a kind of plantain-- are the most consumed product in the world.
The plantain used for cooking is, of course, a hardier, usually larger, sibling of the yellow banana. For most cooking, you want to buy it raw, which means the skin has to be green. Ripe plantains are super-delicious and are great in sweets, and you can cook some savory dishes with them as well, but for the dish I am sharing today be sure to buy the raw, green variety.
I came up with this dish because I found a huge bag of plantains at the supermarket for under two dollars, and loving plantains as much as I do I didn't want to let go of what looked like a great bargain. But I didn't have a ton of time to spend sauteing them as I usually do, so I decided instead to roast them and let the oven do all the work.
Plantains are great for roasting because the natural sugars in them caramelize easily, giving them a beautiful, shiny, golden, crispy coating in almost no time at all. You can try mixing all kinds of spices in this depending on how easy or exotic you want your dish to be. All I did was sprinkle it with some adobo seasoning out of a bottle, a pinch of cayenne and some garlic powder. I can't think of the last time I made a dish that was so easy but so good-looking and ravishingly delicious.
Enjoy, all!
More veggie-filled recipes
- Roasted Carrots with Za'atar
- Baked Plantain Fries
- Vegan Caribbean Bowl with Chickpea Curry, Roasted Plantains and Coconut Rice
- Creamy Herbed Grits Bowl with Leek Gravy and Roasted Root Veggies
Golden Roasted Plantains
Ingredients
- 2 large plantains (peeled and cut crosswise about 2 mm thick. To peel the plantains, I cut them in half, then make an incision with the tip of my knife all the way down the length of each half. Just pull back the skin along the length of the incision and it should just roll right off.)
- 1 tsp adobo seasoning
- ½ tsp cayenne (use less or more per your preference)
- ½ tsp paprika (optional)
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tbsp cilantro (chopped, optional, for garnish)
- Salt to taste
Instructions
- Place the plantain pieces in a baking dish, then add the remaining ingredients and toss together.
- Arrange the pieces on the baking sheet in a single layer
- Bake 20 minutes in a 400-degree oven, flipping the pieces over halfway through the baking to get a nice, golden crunch on each side.
- Garnish with fresh, chopped cilantro.
- Enjoy!
I hope you still get notifications for this post! You said to cut the pieces only 2 mm thick, which not only seems far too thin for anything but chips, but your picture shows slices that are far thicker than that, they look like a quarter of an inch or close to it, which would be more like 5–6 mm. Could you please clarify? Also, is there any reason that the slices can't be longitudinal, in other words along the length of the plantain, rather than being cut in coins? Thanks!
You can cut them as thick as you wish--you'll need longer on the frying pan the thicker they are so they cook through. I like them rather thin. And yes, you can cut them along the length of the plantain.
This is my 1st time at your blog. My family is from the Caribbean islands, so we often eat plantains. However, we usually boil them in salted water or fry them (like tostones, but without seasoning). I roasted them following your recipe (using paprika, not cayenne pepper), and they were delicious! I'll definitely make this again. Thanks for sharing.
Mikou, happy you tried them and liked them! Thanks for letting me know.
looks yummy...
Vaishali,
Loved the plantain recipe, I love making pakoda out of it as well.
Wish you, Desi had a great diwali and thanks for sharing the picture of peaceful Rally!
Roasted plantains look so yumm!!! Thanks for sharing the recipe and photos.
Pavani, Tiffany, Thanks!
Rtoram, the credit for the wonderful pictures goes to Desi 🙂
Harini-Jaya, thanks for pointing that out-- I've added the oven temperature.
Andrea, thanks!
Amymylove, these are the raw, green plantains. The black, ripe ones would be too soft to roast.
AMA, Thanks!
Roasted plantains look exotic.Informative to learn about Rally to Restore sanity.
do you use green plantations for this dish or ripe black ones?
That looks so good. I've only had plantain cooked in soup, and I wasn't a big fan. Roasting it looks like an entirely different eating experience.
yummm...gorgeous looking plantain chips!! hey btw, at what temp shld these be roasted?
vazhakkai is very fine. but the description about the rally is more beautiful. wonderful photos
Sona Ramji
Mmmm those plantains look delicious! Thanks for sharing the recipe and photos.
Roasted plantains look super delicious. I have 2 in my fridge that I need to use up and this dish sounds perfect. Enjoy your weekend.