Plantain Flour
Overview
Plantain flour is made from green, unripe plantain, dried and milled to a powder, and it is a base ingredient rather than a dish. In Nigeria and Ghana it is best known as an alternative flour for swallows, standing in for or blended with yam flour in amala, and it also thickens soups and stews. The unripe plantain is the point. As plantain ripens its starch converts to sugar, so a ripe fruit would give a sweet flour that behaves quite differently. Green plantain is almost entirely starch, which is what allows the flour to form a smooth, stretchy swallow when stirred into hot water. It carries a lower glycemic index than wheat flour, generally cited in the range of 38 to 55 depending on variety and ripeness, and that has given it a second life as a wheat substitute for people managing blood sugar or avoiding gluten. That is a nutritional observation rather than medical advice, and anyone using it for that reason should treat it as one part of a wider diet rather than a remedy. Making it at home is slow rather than difficult: the drying alone takes eight to twelve hours, which is why most households buy it ready milled.
AFN Heritage Note
Plantain flour is milled from dried unripe plantain and is used in Nigeria and Ghana as a base for swallows including amala, and as a thickener for soups and stews.
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
Wash and peel the green or unripe plantains.
- 2
Cut the peeled plantains into thin slices or chunks.
- 3
Blanch the slices in boiling water for 10 to 15 minutes, until soft but not mushy.
- 4
Drain the blanched slices.
- 5
Dry them in a low oven with the door slightly ajar for 8 to 12 hours, or until completely dry.
- 6
Let the dried plantain cool.
- 7
Blend the dried slices into a fine powder.
- 8
Sift the powder to remove coarse particles, using a fine sieve to avoid lumps.
- 9
Store in an airtight container in a cool, dry place.
Africook’s Notes
Personal notes from Deborah Olayiwola- Use green plantain only. As it ripens the starch turns to sugar, and ripe fruit gives a sweet flour that will not form a proper swallow.
- Dry it completely. Any residual moisture and the flour will not mill finely and will spoil in storage within weeks.
- Leave the oven door ajar so moisture escapes rather than condensing back onto the slices.
- Sift through a fine sieve. Coarse particles are what cause lumps when the flour meets hot water.
- Green plantain skin is tough and sticky. Score it lengthways and lever it off rather than trying to peel it like a banana.
- Store airtight and away from humidity, where it keeps for several months.
Reviews
3 reviews
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Why are you blanching it first sha? My mother never blanched her unripe plantain before drying, she just peeled, sliced thin and sun dried. I tried this oven method because rain has started in Abuja and sun is not reliable. Took almost 11 hours o, but the flour came out very smooth for swallow.
Found really firm green plantains at Vallarta market down in North Hollywood. Blanching them for 10 min first made such a difference to the texture. Leaving the oven door slightly ajar for 9 hours made my apartment hot, but grinding it up just now gave me the exact flour I needed for baking.
I sliced 1.5kg of very green plantains into roughly 3mm rounds and blanched them for exactly 12 minutes before putting them in my Defy oven at 60C. Took a full 10 hours to get them completely crisp dry before grinding. Very lekker result, made a super fine powder in my nutribullet.