During the month of January, my wife and I did the Whole30 challenge. The challenge is very similar to our current diet, but without any dairy, white potatoes, white rice, or sweeteners like honey and maple syrup. I felt great all month, but I did struggle with maintaining my weight (I’m a pretty skinny guy). In order to keep up a good amount of carbs, I spent a lot of time eating carb-heavy foods like sweet potatoes, parsnips, sun-dried tomatoes, squash, and plantains.
Of all of those foods, grilled plantains may have been my favorite. They were dead simple to make, and have distinct tastes depending on how ripe the fruits are. Green plantains have a dry, starchy texture and mild taste, while yellow and black plantains are sweeter and less starchy. While fried plantain chips seem to be the standard way to eat plantains in the Paleo world, I wanted to try out grilled plantains (admittedly, it was because I was grilling a lot anyway and I figured, why dirty another dish?).
You’ll Need:
1 plantain
1/4 tsp olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
Cut the plantain in half lengthwise. Brush on the olive oil, then sprinkle on a little salt and pepper.
Preheat your grill to medium heat, then place the plantain halves on direct heat, skin side down, for about 8 minutes. They will be ready to flip when the bottoms are browned and the fruit starts to lift up from the peel.
Grill with the fruit down for about a minute, then serve.
The Domestic Man 
I adore plantains. I have two green ones on my counter as we speak. Unfortunately, we also have six inches of snow on the ground, so grilling is out of the question for the time being.
Oh, the sadness…
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Grilling is never out of the question! Winter grilled food tastes so forbidden, like you stole something from Summer. The cooking times change and proximity to the fire changes, but the results can be very special.
Winter is also a great time for smoking food, if you have the time.
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Guess us Alaskans have a different mindset since we have 5+ months of snow each winter. For us, it can be snowing or below 0° F and we’re still grilling, 1-3x/month
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I totally just picked up some plaintains after work just so I could make this. Bingo!
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Nice! Plantain chips fried in virgin coconut oil and sprinkled lightly with salt are also a force to be reckoned with! Speaking of which, I really need to get a recipe for those up on the site…
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Love the recipe, it’s super simple and tasty! I sprinkled some cinnamon on my plantains.
Just one question–how do I pick out good ones? I made this two nights in a row, and both nights one plantain was good, and the other one was hard and woody. They look and felt about the same! I’m new at this!
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I’ve found that buying plantains can sometimes be a toss-up; they always turn out differently. The main thing you’re supposed to look for it firmness and integrity of the peel – if both those were the same, it just may have been a bad fruit :( For me, it’s a lot like picking an avocado, I kinda suck at it so it’s always a bit of a gamble…
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Hello! I featured an adaptation of this recipe on my blog, The Ingredient List, but I added a dry rub of red chiles and cumin. http://theingredientlist.com/blog/2013/3/25/plantains
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I tool love plantains. I like them green ( when they are ripe they they taste like bananas which I super hate) that being said, I cook them like mashed potatoes except I don’t add milk. Just butter and garlic. Oddly this is one of the few things I don’t prefer with olive oil. So try them green and mashed they are amazing.
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Sooo good! I dipped them in Frank’s Red Hot Sauce. Took a lot longer than 8 minutes though, maybe it was the ripeness factor. Still delicious
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Um, YUM!!!! Anxious to get back to store for more plantains. 17m/o liked it too.
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I grilled mine in the oven (we say grill in England) and it took about 15-20 minutes. Were kinda.. Starchy.. Same as when I tried doing chips, line they really dry out. I added extra coconut oil and lime to rehydrate and they were good. I’ll have to try the chips again with lots of oil! Thanks was great with tilapia coconut curry :-)
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