Banana Curry – without the slip ups
- Updated on Jun 14, 2018
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Every now and then I’m allowed to write a new post (and therefore new recipe) about curry. Kat and Hauke keep it under tight control as otherwise every second recipe on the site would be curry.
Who am I kidding? It would be every recipe.
I love curry and this banana curry is no exception. It’s a change from the ‘usual’ ones (although I don’t think there is a true ‘usual’ curry, the possibilities are endless). Although I tend to stay away from sweeter curries, there’s a time and a place for every type of curry. Today is the day for banana curry.
Not only does the cooked banana fit so well to this time of year, but the time-to-taste ratio is off the charts for this one. It’s an incredibly quick curry and really only needs a few minutes – in fact it’s likely that the rice will be the longest cooking item!
The banana barely needs to cook – the cooking time is just to give the cream a chance to infuse with the curry and take on the flavours. It’s very easy and very simple, in fact it’s hard to find something not to like about this curry.
Going green
Learning to live a ‘green’ life as much as possible has surely got to be a good aim. The same goes for these bananas. Grab them as underripe as you can – the firmer they are, the better they stay together as they cook. They’ll take on plenty of flavour during the cooking process, too.
One quick note – these are still regular bananas, not specialized cooking bananas or anything like that.
Going ghee
I love using ghee to cook and this banana curry gives me the perfect excuse. I would like to make clear that if you don’t have/dont want to use ghee, then olive oil or butter is still excellent in this recipe. Ghee just offers up an extra option.
Ghee is a type of clarified butter, and has several cooking advantages over oil and butter. It has a high smoke point – excellent for frying the cumin at the start of recipe. It’s also lactose-free, which is important to some. In fact, this whole recipe can be made lactose-free by using ghee and swapping the cream for coconut cream.
I also find the taste more intensive than butter and a nice change from cooking with oil. For a full look at the pros and cons of ghee, have a look here. If you’d like to try ghee but are not sure where to start, here’s a shortcut.
Whatever you decide to use to cook your banana curry, you won’t go wrong. It’ll rock.
Going great
No good curry should be eaten alone. In my humble opinion, rice and poppadoms are the ideal companion to banana curry. Chutney or raita would work too, though I find the creamy sweetness of the recipe not particularly calling out for a dip.
If healthy eating is important to you, we highly recommend swapping out that white rice for brown. The nutritional benefits really are so much greater, and your body will undoubtedly thank you for it. Brown rice has earnt a rep for being less tasty than it’s white counterpart, but if you’re smothering it with something as tasty as banana curry then that’s got to be worth something 😉
And finally – breakfast is served!
I couldn’t go without saying that our new ebook, Breakfast in Six is out! We even have a paperback version. It’s full of 30 exclusive vegan and vegetarian recipes that were created especially for the book, and none have ever been featured on our site before (and never will be). In fact, the only way to get them is right here.
Ingredients
- 4-5 banana (as green as possible so they stay nice and firm when cooking)
- 2 tbsp ghee (or oil or butter)
- 1 tsp cumin, ground
- 1 tsp ginger powder
- ¼ tsp red chili powder
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp turmeric
- 3 tbsp water
- ⅔ cup cream (⅔ cup = 150g)
- Salt to taste
Optional:
- ½ cup brown rice (or poppadoms)
Instructions
- Cook rice according to packet instructions.½ cup brown rice
- Peel and slice the bananas about ½ cm thick.4-5 banana
- Heat up the ghee (or oil or butter) in a pan, and add the cumin. Let it fry a little.1 tsp cumin, ground, 2 tbsp ghee
- When the cumin has fried for a couple of minutes, add everything else to the pan and stir gently. That's the ginger, chili powder, cinnamon, water, turmeric. Do it gently so you don't mash the bananas too much.1 tsp ginger powder, ¼ tsp red chili powder, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp turmeric, 3 tbsp water
- Cook for about three minutes, then add the cream and salt. Give another stir and let it heat through. Done!⅔ cup cream, Salt to taste
NOTES
Nutrition
Comments
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3 comments
Tasty recipe. Although the picture doesn’t really look like how mine ends up. Don’t know how the example picture stays so white on the cream when you have turmeric lol, it comes out much more yellowy/brownish from the spices. Going a touch heavier on the spices works for me as well gives it a bit more “umph” to the flavor, but I would taste as you go to see if you want to do that. I haven’t found puppodums to eat this with, works great with rice and that makes for a cheap meal.
Hi Lilly! Really glad you like it. Ha, good question! I honestly don’t remember how it stayed so white :D. I’ll make it again and see how it looks, but you’re absolutely right, the turmeric would definitely brown it up! Yes, rice goes well, and as you say, nice and cheap! 🙂
Made them for dinner last night- they were tasty! Not as sweet as I thought, but they are green bananas. I served it over Jasmine rice, with a side of freshly fried Puppodums (These I found at my local “The Fresh Market” grocery store -in an orange box “Sharwood’s Indian Puppodums, Plain”) By itself, I felt the curry was not as poppin with flavor, but when I added the flavors of the Puppodums, it really gave it that extra ummph I was looking for! Highly recommend serving with Puppodums! Overall great recipe.