Good morning and welcome to Meatless Monday’s…

Bananas...gone are the days when a bunch of bananas was just 6 bananas always the same type the Cavendish Banana and then I moved here…

A whole new world of bananas opened up from small bananas, green bananas, red bananas, bananas for frying, bananas for drying, bananas for eating and gone are the days of buying bunches of 6 bananas…its either a whole big hand of bananas or the whole thing cut straight from the tree…

That is a lot of bananas here in Thailand and in my garden Bananas grow in abundance.

Its scientific name is Musa Sapientum which roughly translated  means  Fruit of wise  men

Here it is called Kluay pronounced glue eye.

Seasons vary slightly around the regions and it is a tree-like perennial and officially classed as a herb, the world’s largest herb as it can reach 25 feet in height. The fruit is also classed as a berry. Did you know that?

Banana leaves are used to serve food on or wrap food…nothing is wasted…

Of course, as we all know bananas generally all ripen at once…which means I need to use some whilst still green and then once they are ripened it’s smoothies, fried, baked, dried and then when they are really ripe it’s Banana bread or muffins…

Green Banana Koftas is a recipe originally from my friend Reena and they are beautiful…really tasty with a touch of spice…

Ingredients for Kofta’s

• 2 Raw Green bananas
• 1/2 cup Cottage cheese (optional)… I have made them with or without the cheese and they are equally delicious.
• 1/4 cup finely chopped onion
• 1 tsp grated ginger
• 1 tsp chopped green chilli…
• 1 tsp Coriander powder
•  1 tsp Garam masala powder
• 1/2 tsp Red chili powder(optional)
• 1 tsp Amchur(dry mango ) powder…if you don’t have Amchur lime juice is fine.
• 1 tbsp Cornflour(as a binding agent)
• Chopped dry fruits for filling(cashew, walnuts, raisins, pistachio or dry berries)
• Butter cut into very small cubes
• Salt to taste
• Oil for deep frying

To Make Koftas

Slit the top and bottom of the bananas. Pressure cook the bananas with skin on till soft or if like me you don’t have a pressure cooker I slowly cooked mine in their skins in some water or you could steam them until soft.

Peel and mash the bananas add all ingredients except nuts, raisins, butter and oil.

Mash everything nicely to make a dough. It’s better to use your finger to make dough. Make equal sized balls out of the dough. Take one ball on your palm and make a hole in the middle with your finger. Fill the hole with dry fruits and a butter cube in it. Close the hole and reshape it like a small oval. Repeat and make such ovals out of the dough. Sprinkle, little cornflour over the kofta and repeat.

In a deep wok add enough oil for frying the koftas in batches of 3-4. Fry over a medium flame till brown. Do not fry over a high flame otherwise, the koftas will be browned from outside and inside it will remain undercooked. Turn gently to brown the other side.

Serve with a curry sauce…and add a swirl of natural yoghurt or just dip them in the curry sauce… They are lovely eaten as a snack and also with the curry sauce

For the curry sauce...when I make a curry if I have any sauce leftover I freeze it for when I make these koftas if not I make just a basic curry sauce made with onions, tomatoes, ginger, garlic and spices… and just freeze it in portions ready to thaw and use…these really are a yummy snack…

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp ghee
• 2 large onions chopped
• 2/3 cloves of garlic finely chopped
• 1-inch piece fresh ginger finely chopped
• 1-2 green chillies sliced
• 3-4 large tomatoes chopped
• 1/2-1 tsp of chilli powder
• 1 tsp garam masala powder
• 2 tsp coriander powder
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp salt

Let’s cook!

Melt the ghee in a heavy-bottomed saucepan and add the onions cook for 5 mins and then add garlic and ginger then cook for a further 10 mins until the onions have softened. Add the spices and the chillies cook for 5 mins, stirring, add the tomatoes and cook covered until the tomatoes have softened and then remove the lid and cook gently until the sauce has thickened.

If we want a creamier sauce I add a spoonful of natural yoghurt with the tomatoes.

This is just a basic sauce which if you are using it to make a lentil curry for example you can add further spices but it is lovely for dunking koftas in…

It freezes well and I freeze in portions as we often have these koftas as a snack or light meal with maybe some nan bread or paretha and the small portions of curry sauce are ideal…

How is introducing more plant-based meals going in your kitchen… Going well or meeting with some opposition?...

That’s all for today on my journey into eating more plant-based meals on a Meatless Monday……Thank you again to everyone who is suggesting recipes I will try them all…xx

Thank you for reading this post If you have enjoyed this post please leave a comment and any tips or recipes you want to share… I love to chat and share recipes…Love Carol xx