Did you know that banana peels are not only made for slipping on? Or throwing them away? They have a lot of positive characteristics and there is a lot of things you can do with them. But I was most surprised when I found a Facebook group adoring them and using them in a lot of recipes. Of course, I had to try this and so I made this really surprising banana peel curry.
banana peel curry
Equipment
- wok
Ingredients
- 2 banana peels
- 80 gram walnuts roughly chopped
- 1 onion yellow
- 1 red chili pepper
- 2 cm fresh ginger
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil
- 0,5 tablespoon turmeric
- 1 tablespoon mustard
- 1 teaspoon red curry paste
- 1 teaspoon cumin powder
- 300 ml water
- black pepper
- salt
Instructions
- Start in the morning and keeps the peels of two bananas aside. Put them in a bowl with water and add some turmeric (¼ tablespoon). Let them soak at least 1 hour, but you can leave them there also for the rest of the day.
- Peel the onion and cut it into slices.
- Chop the ginger into fine pieces.
- Halve the red chili pepper and remove the seeds. Then also slice it into fine pieces.
- Take the banana peels out of the water. Remove the wooden parts and cut them into fine slices of app. 3 cm long.
- Heat the coconut oil in a wok. Then add the onions, ginger and chili pepper. Bake them for a few minutes and then add the spices: red curry paste, the rest of the turmeric powder, the mustard, the cumin powder, some pepper and salt.
- Then add the banana slices and the roughly chopped walnuts and bake for a few minutes while constantly stirring.
- Pour in the water and let it simmer for 15 minutes, until you have a smooth curry paste. Taste and season with extra salt or pepper if needed.
- Serve this delicious curry hot with some basmati rice.
Notes
Nutrition
Bananas, from green to brown
Of course, bananas taste the best when they are ripe. But the green bananas contain a lot of fibers. this makes them actually healthier than ripe bananas. Although some people might get a bit windy from eating them.
Green bananas consist for almost 80% of starch. Now you may think, doesn´t that make you fat? No it does not! It is so called resistant starch that cannot be digested. So it has the same healthy qualities like for example whole wheat and vegetables.
During the riping process, the resistant starch is gradually transformed into sugars. A ripe banana only contains 1% of starch, which is nothing in comparison to green bananas.
But of course, the stars of the article are the banana peels. so let us talk a bit about them!
About banana peels
Banana peels are very healthy as they contain a lot of vitamin B6, B12, magnesium and potassium. But of course you wouldn't and shouldn't eat them raw. I would advise anyway to use bio bananas. But raw they also taste very bitter. In Asia banana peels are often cooked or fried before eating, but they also work perfectly in a smoothie. Just as jack fruit they are even used as a replacement for meat.
Are you not convinced yet? Or are you getting so interested that you want more inspiration? Here are some more ressources to use banana peels in your kitchen:
- Yuka Yoneda from Inhabitat shows various recipes with banana peels in a YouTube film, such as an apple pie smoothie with banana peels, banana peels in pickle juice and candied banana peels. She also processes the skins in stews, soups, curries, chutneys and jams.
- In the Facebook group "banana peel appreciation society" I found this banana skin and coconut curry. I used this idea to develop my own curry with walnuts, using ingredients I had available at home.
More creative with banana peel
Are you still not convinced about eating banana peels? No problem, but maybe you don't want to throw them away anymore like you did before? There is a lot of other things where you can make usage of banana peels.
- polishing your shoes with the inside of the peel.
- make your silver cutlery shine like new.
- compost them in your garden.
- use them as a fertilizer for your plants.
- Mix small stripes of banana peel with the earth around your plants to repel aphids.
- You like butterflies? Distribute some small stripes of banana peel in your garden. The butterflies will be attracted by the sweet smell. The same applies for birds.
- You may even add them to your pan while baking meat. It adds extra moisture and will keep your meet juicy.
Banana peels also have great characteristics to sustain and improve your personal health. Some applications:
- use them to whiten your teeth.
- use them as a mask for your face.
- Are you bitten by an ant or mosquito? Use a banana peel to reduce the itching and the irritation.
- It is a natural way to remove warts.
- They help against acne and psoriasis.
Other surprising vegetarian curries
We have a few more vegetarian curries on surprising.recipes. Just in case you are still not completely in favor of this banana peel version. No problem with that by the way, it is not everybody's cup of tea.
If you speak Dutch, you can find the Dutch version of this recipe on gerechtenweb.blog.