Portions: 4 porciones Calories: 476kcal |
If you love plantains nearly as much as I do, this ripe plantain soup with green plantain chips and cheese is just what you need. Mildly sweet, gently spicy, and with a touch of a crunchy texture. It's like heaven in a soup bowl!
By - Revised . Original Oct 22, 2015.
Best Plantain Soup [Video+Recipe].
Why we ❤️ it
- Dominicans are not the only ones who love plantains, and we have our green plantain soup. They are just as popular in Colombia, Cuba, and Puerto Rico and well-appreciated in other Latin American countries. Let's just say that I love creating recipes with our favorite fruit (yes, plantain is a fruit).
- If you are wondering how to make plantain chips at home, you're lucky. This soup is garnished with them, and I will show you how easy it is to make them.
- You'll be pleasantly surprised by this soup. After all, anything that combines ripe plantains and green plantains is like a double dose of awesome.
Best Plantain Soup [Video+Recipe]
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Utensils and tools
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 large white onion, chopped
- ½ red bell pepper, chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed
- 2 plantain, (very ripe), peeled and chopped
- 6 cups vegetable broth, [1.5 liters]
- ¼ teaspoon cumin powder
- ¼ teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper, (or to taste)
- 1 teaspoon salt, (or more, to taste)
- ¼ teaspoon hot sauce, optional
- ½ cup green plantain chips
- ¼ cup grated sharp cheddar, (optional)
- 5 sprigs parsley
Video
Preparation
1. Sautee plantains
Heat the oil over medium heat in the pot. Add onion and cook and stir until it starts to become translucent. Stir in bell pepper, garlic, and ripe plantain. Cook and stir until the garlic releases its aroma (about a minute). Add salt, cumin and pepper.
2. Boil soup
- Add the broth.Simmer covered for 5 minutes, or until the plantain is cooked through. Remove from the heat and cool to room temperature.
3. Blend and reheat soup
- Liquefy in a blender. Add the parsley and pulse a couple of times to mince it.Pour back into the pot. Reheat over medium heat until it starts to boil.Stir in the spicy sauce. Season with salt to taste.
4. Serving
- Serve sprinkled with cheddar and plantain chips.
Top tips
- Ripe plantains: The plantains should be very ripe, and the peel should be nearly all, or all black, but before the plantain turns mushy.
- Ripening plantains: If the plantains you found are sufficiently ripe, an old trick to ripen plantain faster is to wrap them in newspaper and keep them in a warm and dark spot.
- Cheese or not? Cheese is entirely optional. Without it, you'll have a very nice vegan plantain soup.
- Spicy version: The hot sauce is also optional and should be so mild that it does not overpower the other flavors, aim for just a bit of a kick. Or leave it out. It's up to you.
- Broth: You can use our vegetable broth recipe, or use low-sodium broth if you want to keep the sodium level down.
Chicken broth and beef broth are not good choices because they tend to overpower the mild flavor of the ripe plantains.
Serving suggestions
This is a light soup great for a very light lunch or dinner, but also perfect to serve as a starter.
The green plantain chips add a nice contrast in texture, but you may leave them out.
You can top it with store-bought plantain chips too, and save yourself some time.
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Learn more
The idea for this plantain soup recipe came from a book a friend gave me many years ago called La Cocina Venezolana.
The first dish I tried from the book is the sweet plantain soup upon which I based this recipe. I have to say it has been changed to a significant degree, and I love the result.
The changes I made included adding a ton of ingredients (the recipe only had about four), not using lard (not easy to find anymore), garnishing with plantain chips instead of chopped tostones for extra crispiness, adding bell pepper for extra flavor and color, adding hot sauce - a touch of spiciness that I find goes great with the mild sweetness of this soup - and garnished with cheese.
Nutrition
Nutritional information is calculated automatically based on ingredients listed. Please consult your doctor if you need precise nutrition information.
you did not tell me when lunch was!!!!! 🙂
This was very tasty! Thanks for the receipe. Its the first time I eat platano maduro soup.
Kinda bland, needed additional hot sauce to enjoy this soup over rice... The 4 star rating is mainly due to the fact that roasted ripe plantains are amazing and waiting for plantains to get ripe and then using them in this soup instead of roasting them was not preferable.
Hmmm... I guess it's a matter of taste. This is not something to serve over rice, it's a bowl of creamy soup. I loved it as is, but I guess you did not.
Love this recipe.