Grilled Plantains
Overview
Grilled plantain is street food across West Africa, and in Nigeria it is boli, ripe plantain roasted over charcoal until the outside blackens and the sugars inside caramelise. It is about as simple as cooking gets. No oil, no seasoning, nothing added. The plantain is put over heat and turned. What makes it work is entirely down to the fruit: a plantain that is ripe enough has developed sugars that caramelise under direct heat, and one that is not will taste starchy and dull no matter how long it is grilled. Plantains are not bananas, despite the resemblance. They are larger, starchier, and must be cooked before eating, raw they are unpleasant and hard to digest. The ripeness scale runs from green, which is firm and starchy and used for chips and fufu, through yellow, which is what grilling wants, to almost black, which is very sweet and better fried. Boli is sold from charcoal drums at roadsides and motor parks, usually with roasted groundnuts, and often with a pepper sauce or with fish. The pairing with groundnuts is close to fixed in Nigeria, the salt and fat against the sweetness of the plantain. It is cheap, filling and energy-dense, which is why it has stayed street food rather than becoming restaurant food.
AFN Heritage Note
Roasted plantain is documented as street food across West Africa, known as boli in Nigeria, where it is traditionally cooked over charcoal and sold with roasted groundnuts. Plantains require cooking before consumption and are used at different stages of ripeness for entirely different dishes.
Ingredients
Dietary tags are provided by contributors as a guide, not verified by AFN, and they depend on the products you buy. If you have a serious allergy, check every ingredient yourself. Cooking, allergies and your own judgement
Directions
- 1
Preheat your grill pan, or air-fryer to about 400°F.
- 2
Cut off both ends of the plantains and discard. Make a lengthwise slit through the peel of each one.
- 3
Pull back the peel and use your fingers to remove the flesh inside. Discard peels.
- 4
Oil the grill grates or grill pan, air-fryer lightly. Place plantain slices flat on the hot surface. Grill for 4-5 minutes until deep grill marks form.
- 5
Flip and grill the other side for 3-4 minutes more until caramelized and slightly softened inside.
- 6
Pair with salty, savory foods like seasoned chicken, fish, or steak.
Africook’s Notes
Personal notes from Deborah Olayiwola- Use yellow plantains with some black speckling. Green is too starchy to caramelise; fully black is better fried than grilled.
- Charcoal beats a gas grill or oven. The smoke is part of the flavour and is the main thing lost indoors.
- Turn often rather than leaving it. The sugars scorch quickly once they start to catch.
- Leave the skin on if roasting whole, it protects the flesh and peels off easily once cooked.
- Roasted groundnuts alongside is the traditional pairing and genuinely improves it, salt and fat against the sweetness.
Reviews
4 reviews
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Threw four ripe yellow plantains straight onto the braai grid after the wood burnt down to coals. Slit the peels off like step 2 says and brushed with a bit of sunflower oil so they didn't stick to the grid. 5 minutes first side then 4 minutes after flipping gave deep black grill marks and a lekker caramelised crust with soft middle. Goes surprisingly well next to a boerewors roll!
Used a cast iron grill pan on my cooker top in Tottenham because we don't have space for a proper barbecue. In Ghana we call roasted plantain Kofi Brokeman and eat it with salted peanuts paa! The 4-5 minutes on the first side was spot on for caramelising, but 3 minutes on the flip side was a bit too fast for mine, needed about 6 minutes to soften properly inside.
i made this in my ninja air fryer last night at 400 degrees because dallas weather was too hot for outdoor grill. the 4 minutes per side gave it those dark grill marks and that nice sweet smell like street boli in lagos. just buy the yellow ones that still have a tiny bit of green at the tips from fiesta so they dont turn into mush when you flip them o.
chale my plantains were very yellow with black spots from Saraga market here in Columbus, but 400°F for 4 minutes burnt the outside black before the inside could even soften at all. maybe my air fryer runs too hot or 400 is too high for very ripe ones oo. had to lower to 350 so the middle wouldn't stay raw.