How to cook banana flower

Banana blossoms are widely used in Bengali vegetarian cuisine. We serve them as main course along with Dal and rice or make cutlets and serve them as starters. It’s a traditional classic recipe ingredient which is on the verge of becoming lost recipe due to the complicated process of cleaning the flowers. The banana blossom consists of a collection of flowers. Each of these flowers have to be cleaned by removing the stigma and the sepal both of which do not get tender during cooking. after than the flowers are chopped finely. The banana blossom has high content of iron and has great nutritional value. They are a part of authentic vegetarian cuisine of Bengal and are cooked without onion and garlic.

The flowers when cooked with spices have a meaty texture and can create dishes which can taste like meat or can be considered as meat substitute for vegans. In older days the widows in Bengal were debarred from consuming any meat based dishes and a whole array of delicious vegetarian cuisine has been developed revolving around this tradition.

Recently I got these larger sized banana blossoms in Kolkata vegetable market which belonged to a specific species of banana and it took less time to clean the flowers as they were huge and hardly had any stigma. Check out the recipe below.

Is banana flower used for cooking?

Yes, they can be used in making curries, appetizers or salads. They taste unique and delicious..

Does banana blossom taste like banana?

They have a strong taste and slightly bitter.

What are the effects of banana blossom?

Banana flowers are rich in iron and helps to lower diabetes and blood cholesterol levels.

Ingredients

1 banana blossom
2 tbsp ginger and green chili paste
1 cinnamon
3 to 4 green cardamom
3 cloves
1 bay leaf
1/2 cup freshly grated coconut
2 tbsp oil (mustard oil) or any vegetables oil
1 cup oil for frying
4 to 5 boiled potatoes
1/2 cup cornflour
1 cup panco crumbs (optional) or oats

Preparations

1. Clean the flowers, by discarding the stigma
2. Chop them finely
3. Boil then in water till tender
4. Drain and mash them
5.Add mustard oil in work and heat
6.Add the bay leaf and whole spices
7. Add ginger paste and fry.
8.add the mashed flowers
9.Add sugar and salt as per taste.
10. Make cups out of mashed potatoes and add spoonful of these flowers’ fillings.
11. Close the cup and dip them in cornflour slurry
12. Roll them in oats or panco crumbs and deep fry
13.Setve them hot with ketchup

Print

Banana flower cutlets

Banana flowers chopped and cooked in spices filled in mashed potato cups, rolled in corn flour and breadcrumbs and deep fried.

Course Appetizer

Cuisine Bengali cuisine, East Indian

Keyword bongconnection, fasting recipes, shivratri, vegan, vegetarian

Author indrani

Ingredients

Ingredients

• 1 banana blossom
• 2 tbsp ginger and green chili paste.
• 1 cinnamon
• 3 to 4 green cardamoms
• 3 cloves
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/2 cup freshly grated coconut.
• 2 tbsp Mustard oil or any vegetables oil
• 1 cup oil for frying
• 4 to 5 boiled potatoes
• 1/2 cup corn flour
• 1 cup panko crumbs optional or oats

Instructions

Preparations

1. Clean the flowers, by discarding the stigma
2. Chop them finely
3. Boil then in water till tender
4. Drain and mash them
5. Add mustard oil in work and heat
6. Add the bay leaf and whole spices
7. Add ginger paste and fry.
8. Add the mashed flowers
9. Add sugar and salt as per taste.
10. Make cups out of mashed potatoes and add spoonful of these flowers’ fillings.
11. Close the cup and dip them in corn flour slurry
12. Roll them in oats or panko crumbs and deep fry
13. Serve them hot with ketchup

Recipe Video

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