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Plantain Tortillas and Some Lovely Topping Options

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Plantain tortillas: slightly sweet, wonderfully soft yet stable texture, and incredibly easy to make. Blake whipped these up quickly, and we can’t wait to try them out again with other toppings! They work perfectly as a soft taco shell, but I’m sure we could find many other uses for this mixture, as well. It’s very similar to a pancake mixture, for example!

We were inspired to try these out by our friend Amanda at The Curious Coconut. She shared a link to a recipe on her Facebook Page yesterday, and we’re so glad we saw it!

The recipe Amanda shared comes from a site called ZenBelly: Gluten-Free and Paleo Catering. We ended up going by a different recipe from the site PaleoSecret, however. The major difference between the two is that the latter uses a large green plantain over ZenBelly’s use of small, yellow ones. We made a few modifications of our own, of course, too!

Here ya go! And they reheat well, so you can make a big batch and try them out all kinds of ways!

Ingredients

  • 1 large green plantain, roughly sliced
  • 2 eggs — in the future we plan to experiment with our favorite vegan egg alternative 1 tbsp milled flax seed + 3 tbsp water = 1 egg
  • 1 clove freshly minced garlic
  • 2 tbsp melted coconut oil
  • 1 tsp lime juice
  • 1 tsp dill weed
  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • 1 tsp salt — Recommendation from PaleoSecret: “we advise against using ripe plantains but if you do, use around 1 tbsp salt, or to taste”
  • A dash of freshly ground, coarse black pepper

Note: In PaleoSecret’s version, they also used 2 tsp arrowroot powder to help the tortillas remain soft and supple. Not having arrowroot powder, Blake planned to substitute 1 1/2 tsp cornstarch for each tsp of arrowroot (1 tbsp flour would also work,) but he forgot to add it, and the tortillas came out perfect anyway!

(Blake Note: I wouldn’t say perfect; by forgetting the arrowroot the tortillas had a denser, slightly rubbery texture. The upside though was a very durable product so we could really pack the tortillas full of our mixture below! Funnily enough the result was similar to a savory version of a banana pancake recipe from Sierra Leone I made in World Studies class in Jr. High.)

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
  2. Peel and roughly chop the plantains
  3. Process the plantains along with the rest of the ingredients in a food processor or, if you’re like us and don’t have one, a blender seems to work fine! Blend until smooth and creamy
  4. Put parchment paper on a baking sheet and spoon the mixture onto the parchment paper (6 tortillas on each baking sheet) — If you used a large plantain, your mixture should yield about 10-12 tortillas.
  5. Use a spoon and/or moist fingers to flatten the tortillas and ensure that each tortilla is the same thickness from the center to the edge, about 1/8th of an inch thick and 4-5 inches in diameter
  6. Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes until the edges start to turn golden brown.
  7. Let cool slightly and then remove from the parchment paper.

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Blake topped ours with avocado, mango, onion, lime juice, jasmine rice, and black beans: a sort of mango salsa/guacamole that was delicious!

Some other great topping suggestions from PaeloSecret include Peking Duck Tacos, 5 Spice Pulled Pork Tacos, and even Breakfast Burritos with sausage, egg and sweet potatoes.

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