- 1 green or ripe plantain
- Himalayan salt
How to choose which type of plantain to use?
Green plantain: unripe; higher in starches and lower in simple sugars; might ferment less in the gut however might be hard to digest; has a savoury taste and can replace bread in recipes.
Yellow plantain: ripe; higher in simple sugars and lower in starch; easy to digest however tends to ferment in the gut, when eaten to excess (so be mindful with your portions); has a sweet taste and a smooth texture.
As the different colours represent two different ripening stages, it is possible that also the salicylate-amine-glutamate ratio varies, as is often the case with ripe vs unripe fruit — salicylates being typically higher in unripe fruit, whereas amines and glutamate being typically higher in ripe fruit. So you might want to consider this factor too, if you’re sensitive to natural chemicals.
If you don’t have any particular food sensitivities, the rule of thumb is to rotate ripe and unripe plantains: you’ll alternate savoury and sweet flavour; you’ll alternate hard and soft texture; you’ll alternate chemical toxicity (meaning that you’ll be less likely to develop a food intolerance) and you’ll potentially alternate two different micro- and micronutrient profiles, thus getting the best of both worlds.
How to bake Plantain
Preheat the oven at 220C.
Peel off and slice plantain. If you use a green one, sprinkle with salt. If you go for a ripe plantain, you can skip this step for a sweeter flavour. Bake until golden on the edges and soft in the midsection. Enjoy!