Raw Banana Curry | Plantain Curry Recipe

Summer is moving towards winter. Sweaty, sunny days are getting over. As I wake up early morning and wide open the window, it’s chill in the air that welcomes me. I wish I can go for a long walk with my hands inside warm pockets and I get a nice company to chit chat as far as I walk. The beginning of winter is that time of the year when dawn is lightly caressed by frost.

In a month’s time Sun almost starts playing hide and seek, hiding himself under dark clouds. In such a bad light conditions, it’s almost impossible to take salivating food photographs. I have become a kind of proactive food-blogger now, so everyday some stuff for this space is being prepared and photographed. These food themselves rescue me in extremely low light days from staying away from udupi-recipes.

I happened to see a big cluster of raw banana hung from ceiling in a local vegetable market, it was fresh, solid and attractive with dark green color. With no second thought I bought many of them…YES MANY.  It resulted in two recipes for the price of one, raw banana curry and raw banana chips which will be posted soon.  This raw banana curry is made from scratch meaning the spices are roasted and powdered instantly, as opposed to using the stocked sambar powder. Outcome is amazingly delicious  curry!!!

I have included a handful of chickpea, as they go well with raw banana cubes. Tamarind, jaggery and salt are the regular spices used in a curry and balance the taste.  A heaped scoop of raw banana curry on fluffy rice makes a filling lunch and dinner. So why are you waiting..Get ready to jump in to the kitchen. 🙂

Print Recipe

Raw Banana with Chickpea Curry | Plantain Curry Recipe

Prep Time15 minutes mins

Cook Time15 minutes mins

Total Time30 minutes mins

Author: Sumana

Ingredients

• Raw banana- 3 nos.
• Chickpeas- 2 fistful
• Pigeon pea lentil Toor dal- 2 tsp
• Tamarind- Big gooseberry sized
• Jaggery- Lemon sized
• Salt- 2 tsp
• Turmeric powder- 1/2 tsp

For grinding

• Coriander seeds- 2 tsp
• Cumin seeds- 3/4 tsp
• Split black gram lentil- 1/2 tsp
• Split chickpea lentil- 1/2 tsp
• Fenugreek seeds-1/2 tsp
• Red chillies- 3 no.
• Curry leaves- few
• Grated coconut- 3/4 cup
• Cooking oil- 2 tsp

Seasoning ingredients

• Mustard seeds- 1 tsp
• Split black gram lentil- 1/2 tsp
• Curry leaves- few

Instructions

Preparation

• Trim the ends of raw banana and peel the skin using peeler, then slit them vertically and chop in to small cubes. Keep these raw banana pieces immersed in water to avoid discoloration.
  
• Pressure cook chickpea and pigeon pea lentils till soft and keep it aside till use.
• Soak tamarind in water for about 10 minutes and extract thick juice discarding the residue.

Method

• Add cooking oil in to wok/kadai, under medium heat fry split black gram lentil, split chickpea lentil, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, fenugreek seeds, red chillies and curry leaves one after the other. Then grind all these roasted ingredients along with grated coconut to semi-fine paste. Add water as required to make thick paste.
  
• Drain the water from raw banana cubes, add fresh water, turmeric powder and jaggery. Bring it to boil in medium flame and then cook it till soft in low flame. Include tamarind extract too.
• Once the raw banana pieces are cooked well, add pressure cooked chickpea and pigeon pea lentils. Also include ground coconut+spices paste from step1. Mix well, add salt and water needed. Bring it to boil and switch off.
  
• Heat a tempering pan, adding all the "seasoning ingredients" in the order mentioned, as the mustard seeds pop up transfer it to the raw banana curry.
• Perfect side dish with rice,chapati is ready.
  

Notes

• While roasting the ingredients, make sure the flame is low and none of the spices are burnt. Proper roasting of spices is the key to get right taste.
• Coconut+spices should not be ground too finely.
• Make sure the raw banana cubes are well cooked before adding ground paste. Once you add the masala the pieces will not get cooked.