Green banana porridge: a Jamaican breakfast built on unripe fruit

This is nothing like a ripe-banana smoothie bowl. Green bananas are starchy, not sweet, closer in texture to a root vegetable than to fruit, and grated raw into simmering coconut milk they thicken into a porridge with real body, the way Jamaican kitchens have made it for generations.

Green banana carries resistant starch that behaves differently in digestion than the sugar-heavy ripe fruit does, and the coconut milk it simmers in adds a fat that helps carry the warm spice through the whole bowl. Vanilla and cinnamon do the flavoring, with mace standing in for the nutmeg in the original; nothing here needs to lean on refined sugar.

Ingredients

• 3 large green bananas
• 2 1/2 cups water
• 2 cups full-fat coconut milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon ground mace (in place of nutmeg), or omit
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon, or 2 cinnamon sticks
• 1/8 teaspoon fine sea salt
• Honey or maple syrup, to taste

Nutmeg is a seed spice and sits outside strict AIP elimination. Mace comes from the same plant but from a different part of it, and reads close enough to stand in; leaving it out entirely also works fine.

Method

• Peel the green bananas (a knife works better than trying to peel them like a ripe banana) and grate them coarsely, or pulse them in a food processor until finely chopped.
• Combine the grated banana with the water in a saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat, stirring often as it starts to thicken.
• Stir in the coconut milk, vanilla, mace (if using), cinnamon, and salt. Continue simmering, stirring frequently to prevent sticking, for 10 to 15 minutes, until thick and porridge-like.
• Remove the cinnamon sticks if using. Sweeten to taste with honey or maple syrup and serve warm.

*Adapted from thatgirlcookshealthy.com by Charla*