Fact: plantains are freaking awesome.

I had my first experience with plantains when I was a kid and my mom had decided we needed to branch out and try new kinds of produce. Unfortunately, this was pre-Internet-for-everything, so the only inkling of how to use a plantain was from the label at the grocery store: "Like A Banana!" Okay, sure thing. You can probably imagine how well we liked green plantains after our first taste-test.

Needless to say, I'm glad I gave plantains another chance a year or two ago. I can't seem to survive without them in my apartment. And though I'm totally fine just frying plantains, I like to experiment sometimes, too. Thus, I made Baked Plantain Fries, and they make me happy.

I have a plantain story. I was at the grocery store the other day, and bought chicken thighs, kale, plantains, and cabbage. The poor guy at the register had no clue what a plantain was, and I basically had to walk him through how to ring it up. Then, looking at the rest of my groceries, he said, "Eating healthy?" to which I responded, "This is normal for me." I'm pretty sure the guy was desperate to continue the conversation, because his next golden line was, "It just seems like you eat healthy." Oh, sorry. Totally slipped my mind that just buying produce and meat is weird. I forgot my cart full of Doritos and Pepsi in the produce section while I was freaking out over the great selection of plantains you have. I wish I had said that. I just shrugged and reiterated, "This is just normal for me. This is how I eat."

My firmness must have flustered the poor kid, because he kept starting sentences and not finishing them after that. Luckily my order was small, so the awkwardness only lasted a minute or so before we wished me a great weekend (on a Sunday night).

Okay, so that wasn't the best plantain story. Still seemed worth sharing...would sharing the recipe make up for my weird story? I'll even throw in a recipe for immersion blender chipotle mayo.

Cool, cause I was going to share it with you anyway.

Baked Plantain Fries are pretty bomb, so prepare yourself for these simple plantain pleasures! I love dipping plantain fries in homemade mayo—I'm easy to please. But these easy fries are great on their own or with a variety of dipping sauces. Experiment. You'll feel like a free spirit.

But, if you want to go the mayo route...making this chipotle mayo is really easy if you have an immersion blender! When I first got an immersion blender, my mayos failed because lots of recipes out there tell you to just combine everything in the container, insert blender, and blend. It's never worked for me. Perfect mayo still requires a bit of tender loving care...you still have to drizzle the mayo in. But it doesn't take as long, and cleanup is a lot faster with an immersion blender.

📖 Recipe

Baked Plantain Fries (with Chipotle Mayo)

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Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 25 minutes
Yield: 2 servings 1x

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Ingredients

Scale

Plantain Fries:

2 plantains, yellow-brown
1 Tb coconut oil, melted
1-2 teaspoon salt

Chipotle Mayo:

1 egg
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 Tb chipotle powder
1 cup light-tasting olive oil or avocado oil, divided

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Instructions

Plantain Fries:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Peel plantains and cut into "fries". I do this by cutting each plantain in half horizontally, then cutting each piece in half vertically, and then slicing these quarters into three fry wedges.
In a medium-sized bowl, toss the plantain wedges with melted coconut oil and salt.
Arrange plantain wedges on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Be sure none are touching! Pop the sheet into the oven for about 15-20 minutes, flipping halfway through.

Chipotle Mayo:

In a tall, relatively thin container, combine egg, apple cider vinegar, and ¼ c of the oil. Let sit so everything comes to room temp together while you make the plantain fries (or about 30 minutes).
Insert an immersion blender and blend, keeping head of the blender on the bottom of the container. Once everything is mixed and the emulsion has started to form (it should look somewhat creamy and juuust be starting to thicken), start drizzling in the rest of the oil. At this point, I usually slowly raise the immersion blender up to the top of the emulsion and then back down - I get thicker mayo this way. This should take about 1-2 minutes. If you've ever made blender mayo, this is definitely faster, but for it to be "fail proof" you still have to add the oil slowly!
At this point, It should look like mayo. Thick, delicious, creamy mayo. Add in the chipotle powder and give it a final blend to mix it in!

Notes

If you don't have chipotle powder on hand, try a 1:1 mix of chili powder and paprika. I dig it.

Nutrition

Serving Size: 1 sliced plantain

Shared on Real Food Wednesdays and Allergy Free Wednesdays!

Baked Plantain Fries

📖 Recipe