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Get Started! How To Make? — A Simple Salad — A Richer Salad — A Baroque Salad!
Ingredients: (1) Leafy Greens, (2) Fruits & Berries, (3) Rainbow Veggies, (4) Herbs & Spices, (5) Lime, Lemon & Vinegar, (6) Beans for Salad, (7) Starch Rich Ingredients for Salad: Plantains, Tubers, and Whole Grains, (8) Dressings, Chutneys, Relishes & Salsa.
Yes. If we let them ripen! They are yummy. See videos below.
The videos below explain that plantains can be eaten raw if we let them ripen. As their skin turns black, they become sweeter. However, I don't ripen plantains to the extent shown in the these videos; I eat them when they start tasting good (sweet like bananas) but not squishy as a super ripe plantain with black colored skin.
I prefer buying plantains with yellow colored skin that look like oversized bananas. These are typically ready to eat; they don't need further ripening. Such plantains are sold in stores like Costco, Lidl and Sprouts. I haven't seen such plantains in Indian grocery stores; they sell other varieties of plantains, typically very green.
Plantains are starch rich. And I find ripe plantains satiating, just like sweet potatoes. Both can be eaten raw but few people seem to know that. One difference is: sweet potatoes are kinda dry and I don't naturally gravitate towards raw sweet potatoes; ripe plantains are juicy and make a wonderful base for raw, juicy salads. And plantains are cheap: about 60 cents a pound in stores like Costco and Lidl, comparable to the cost of bananas.
A simple plantain-based recipe that takes 5 mins to prepare (but longer to eat): mix 1 chopped ripe plantain with mixed greens sold in Sprouts or Costco. Add some lemon and any misc spice mix (e.g., "salt-free, all purpose spice mix" or some sumac or just black pepper). And we have a salad! For better flavor, we can add some sliced peach.
I make a raw salad with plantains:
Overview: How To Make A Raw Salad?
Get Started! A Simple Salad — A Richer Salad — A Baroque Salad!
What else may we do with plantains? Check out Plantain Recipes. We can make curries, stews, soups, and even porridges and tortillas! I love to eat plantains raw — after they have ripened sufficiently — as part of a raw salad. They are delectable!
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