Banana Blossom Salad – Cheap Dinner Idea!
Home grown cheap and easy recipe
Once your banana stops setting fruit , the bell is ready to harvest, best just before cooking.
Banana flower salad is a cheap dinner idea for your family, fancy enough for a dinner party! Provided you grow a garden with some herbs and of course, bananas.
I used to throw the flower or bell in the compost not knowing what to do with it. My first trial making a banana blossom salad turned out delicious!
It’s a very flexible recipe and I’ll try to present it in a way that you can pick and choose according to what’s growing in your yard.
Banana blossoms are used in curries, stir-fries, soups, and salads, and traditional recipes are mainly from Thai, Vietnamese, Indian, and Sri Lankan cuisines. I could not find any African or South American recipes with banana flowers, if you know some please let me know!
There are two edible parts of the banana flower: the inner layers and the florets.
First, peel the outer maroon leaves away. They are not edible but can serve as fancy plates. When you can’t peel anymore and the leaves are cream-pink you’ve reached the edible part.
Cut lengthwise in half or quarters and then in slices submerge the cut pieces immediately into acid water. You can use either a lemon or vinegar for that. (Roughly 1/4 cup of vinegar to 4 cups of water)
But also the florets are edible after removing the pistil and calyx. The pistils look like old-fashioned match sticks and the clayx like an insect wing. I preferred not to have them in my salad because I didn’t like their raw taste all too much. As with the heart, the florets need to be placed in acid water immediately.
This is the slowest part it goes easier with a chat over a cup pf coffee!
The acid water has two functions: it draws bitterness out and prevents the pieces from looking black and unappealing.
Here is my pick-and-choose type of recipe. There are versions from Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam and the ingredients seem very flexible. I didn’t care about crossing country borders and I even Australianised the meat part by choosing kangaroo mince and frying instead of poaching it.
I added some snake beans and for the herbs I used coriander, Vietnamese mint, Egyptian mint and Thai basil, for the chilli any chilli I am growing. There are no exact quantities in the recipe, but I hope it’s exact enough for you!
Main ingredient:
Protein part:
Chose one or two of the following proteins, I used kangaroo mince which is not traditional., maybe 250 gr.
Other vegetables (Optional):
Not too much we want the banana flower to shine!
Herbs:
At least two of the following herbs, totally 1/2-1 cup
Nuts:
roughly 1/4 cup dry roasted in a pan, choose one (or two)
Dressing:
You can process the whole in a blender or leave some chilli out and cut it finely for visual appeal.
Banana blossom salad goes well with rice vermicelli or steamed rice. It’s also an ideal school lunch or workday lunch.
I came up with that method to present a recipe in a very flexible way. If you have basic cooking skills you should be fine. I hope you like it – tell me what you think!
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Home grown cheap and easy recipe
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