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| Plantains are plentiful at Farmers Markets in Costa Rica! |
While I’ve been in Tamarindo this month, I’ve eaten plantain
chips, fried plantain patties, grilled plantains glazed with brown sugar, and even
plantain pancakes. My friend Mary Plunkett sent me the recipe for plantain
pancakes (which she found on The Paleo Mom website), and they’re so good that I
wanted to share the recipe here. The recipe requires no flour of any kind,
making it especially favorable (and inexpensive) for gluten-free cooks!
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| Perfect Paleo Pancakes are similar to IHOP's Harvest Grain N' Nut Pancakes--but gluten-free! |
Ingredients:
2 large green plantains (about 2 cups pureed)
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
3 Tbsp extra virgin coconut oil
1/8 tsp salt (a generous pinch)
½ tsp baking soda
Extra coconut oil for frying
1.
Peel plantains (I find it easier to quarter them
before I peel them) and place pieces in your blender (preferred) or food
processor (okay) with the eggs. Blend to form a smooth batter (if your blender
has a smoothie function, that works well here).
2.
Add the rest of the ingredients to the blender
or food processor and process on high for an additional minute (or 2-3 with a
food processor to get a really good smooth batter).
3.
Heat 1 Tbsp of coconut oil in a frying pan or on
a griddle over medium-high heat. Pour batter into the frying pan until your
pancake is the desired size.
4.
Let cook 4-5 minutes on the first side until the
top looks fairly dry with little bubbles in it (just like regular pancakes!)
5.
Flip! And cook on the second side for 1 ½
minutes.
6.
Repeat with remaining batter, adding a little
more coconut oil to your pan as needed.
I’ve made this recipe twice since I’ve been in Costa Rica,
and the second time I added chopped pecans directly to the batter. My husband
thinks they are “just as good as the Harvest Grain N' Nut Pancakes” that we
used to eat at IHOP (in the years before my diagnosis of celiac disease).
Another easy way to cook plantains, which I learned by
watching our Costa Rican housekeeper Ileana, is to slice a ripe plantain (just
as you would slice a banana). Then mash each slice on a paper towel to remove
moisture and fry them lightly in a small amount of oil, turning to make them
crispy on each side. We ate them with refried beans. Oh, so good!
Taste-wise and nutritionally, plantains are quite different
from bananas. Bananas are much sweeter than plantains, even at their ripest. For
the same amount of each, the banana has 89 calories, while the plantain has
122. The banana is also lower in fat, sodium, and carbohydrates, and sugar,
which for most of us tips the scale in their favor. Plantains, on the other hand, are much higher
in vitamin A, vitamin C, magnesium, and potassium.
No matter! I will never make pancakes again without my new
friend, the plantain!
