Plantain

Similar name, similar appearance, but nevertheless hardly any danger of confusion: at around 300 grams, plantains are almost twice the size of bananas, their skin has a characteristic angular shape and varies in colour between green, yellow, red and reddish-purple, depending on the degree of ripeness.

The name also indicates another difference from fruit bananas. Cooking bananas cannot be eaten raw, they are basically boiled, fried or deep-fried. Their starchy, mealy flesh has also earned them the alias plantains flour bananas. Other second names are vegetable banana or horse banana.

In our country, the tropical import is still largely unknown and is therefore considered exotic. Plantains are one of the oldest cultivated plants and play a similarly important role in everyday cooking in many tropical countries as potatoes do here.

Origin

Cooking bananas have their original home in South America and Africa.

Season

Since plantains are always ripening in one of the countries of origin, there is no special season for them.

Taste

Cooked bananas not only have a potato-like consistency, they also taste quite similar, just a little more neutral.