Plantain
What is plantain?
Although sometimes referred to as “cooking bananas” and it may look like a banana, do not be fooled. Plantain is starchy and tough, but very tasty in savoury meals. Plantain is commonly found in west and central Africa, the Caribbean Islands, Central America and the Northern parts of South America. Although not too common in the UK, it can be found in ASDA or a world cuisine store.
Here in Mexico plantain is a common food in supermarkets and this is one of my favourite ways to have plantain, or “banana for grown-ups” as I like to call them. This vegan plantain and chickpea satay curry is packed full of protein using simple but tasty ingredients and will be ready in under an hour, who likes spending anymore time in the kitchen than they have too?
Vegan Plantain and Chickpea Satay Curry
Ingredients
- 3 Plantain
- 1 Red Onion
- 4 Garlic Cloves
- 2 Chillies
- 400g Chickpeas
- 1 cup Rice
- 3 tbsp Satay Sauce
- 400ml Coconut Milk
Instructions
- Put on your favourite dinner making music.
- Now, whack the rice on, it'll take 10-ish minutes to cook, then another 15-20mins to steam off.
- Heat some oil and chop your plantain into 1-1.5cm slices and start frying - about 5 minutes on each side until slightly burnt.
- Now grab a smaller frying pan, roughly chop the onion, garlic, chilli and start frying that too, 5 mins on medium heat should do.
- Flip the plantain & check the rice (I know you probably forgot).
- Add the onion, garlic and chilli into the same pan as the plantain.
- Once the plantain is nearly done, add the 3tbsp of satay sauce and mix it up good, real good.
- Now chuck the all of the coconut milk in and mix, about 1/3 of the tin at a time and leave to simmer for 15-20 mins while you sort the rice, just keep stirring now and again.
- Rice should be done, drain, pop back in the saucepan and put the lid on, but slot a tea towel in-between the saucepan and the lid. Leave this to steam for 15-20 minutes.
- Plate up, you're done. Easy really. Enjoy!