Steamed Plantain Shoots, A Trial to Harvest Another Vegetable from Our Garden

Kitchen,

Plantain shoots DSC00516Collected plantain shoots.

No difference was noticed after cooking.

Plantain shoots, cleaned DSC00519Cleaned up plantain shoots.

Put water into the steamer, and bring to a boil before slicing up the plantain shoots.  We have to slice with a good knife rather than with a food processor.  It is quick, and the fibers in the shoots cover over the food processor slicing blade.

Plantain shoots, sliced DSC00521

DSC00523  Add shoots to the steaming pot as soon as they are sliced, as we go along.  This keeps the slices from darkening, which they do very quickly.

DSC00528We ate these as a side with butter, salt and pepper.

We are saving the rest for a salad.

Raw, the plantain shoots seemed like a cross between celery and asparagus.  They must be cooked as soon as they are sliced, because unlike the actual plantains, these turn dark very quickly.  Cooked, they have a bland, very slightly bitter taste, similar to a very mild bitter green.  They are definitely edible, and are a by product of our very well producing plantains.  Within a few days of chopping them off they shoot up again, so they can probably be harvested from a single corm several times.