Latin Fries with Chimichurri

plantain fries with chmichurri

French fries? How about Latin fries? Baked plantains crisp up just as nicely as fried potatoes, for a Paleo-friendly version of this guilty pleasure –for the salt-aholic, like myself.

Ingredients

  • 5 green plantains
  • F.O.C. (fat of choice), we used bacon renderings
  • 1/2 handful of cilantro leaves
  • 2 green onions
  • 2 T olive oil
  • salt
  • squeeze of honey

Method

For the Fries

Preheat the oven to 400ºF. Green plantains do not peel easily. Here’s what to do:

Now cut the plantain in 1/2, widthwise, and then cut into matchsticks (or skip the widthwise cut and just slice ’em). Melt your F.O.C. in a medium-sized bowl and toss in the plantains. Coat them well  & add a nice pinch of salt. Spread the plantains out on a baking sheet and pop into the oven. Let them go until they get crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, about 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and sprinkle a bit more salt on, if needed.

For the Sauce

Puree all the ingredients in your food processor or blender.


Comments

12 responses to “Latin Fries with Chimichurri”

  1. Oh. My. GAWD. I wonder how these would be actually fried in tallow…

  2. hmmmm…delicious pork fat or delicious beef fat?

    the decision is too hard!

  3. ooooooooo….LOVE IT!! you guys are just so damn great. never tried plantains, but i’ve always wanted to. guess i have something fun to make this weekend! just got on the site to print your banana bread recipe 🙂 i’m pumped! hope you guys are competing in the open!!

  4. AustinGirl

    Morning!
    These look fantastic, and I LOVE plantains (ok, and pretty much any recipe y’all ever post), but I was wondering why these are paleo and regular potatoes aren’t? I’m relatively new to this eating style (since Oct of last year) and sometimes the nuances are tricky for me. Thanks!!

  5. juli, some people hate plantains but i cannot figure out why. they are amazing. i hope you like them. and yes, we are competing. this might be pr fuel #2.

    austingirl…thanks so much. we would absolutely consider white potatoes paleo. some folks following a moderate/low carb style paleo will keep them to a minimum (this is what we do)…and this may be prudent, but any starchy tuber would not be considered a disease promoting food around here. search potatoes on Mark’s Daily Apple…i know he did a good piece on the whole white potato controversy recently. i think somehow they got lumped in there with other “white” foods, possibly by dr. cordain. it’s wise to peel your potatoes though since that’s where some antinutrients do live.

    anyway…the main thing that would make a regular french fry less Paleo (to us) would be that anymore they are fried in some industrial seed oil (peanut, soybean, canola) that is a disease promoting agent because of extremely high omega 6 (polyunsaturated fat) content and the fact that that type of fat will be oxidized (damaged) by high heat (inflammatory).

    we used the bacon fat here to avoid the seed/vegetable oils. if you did this with potatoes…it would still be paleo to us. we would be mindful of the amount of carbs though, but not because of “paleo”, per se. i hope that makes sense.

  6. juli–i’m not going to lie…i’m scared. i’ve yet to sign up..haha. the first WOD totally speaks to my strengths, i’m just scared of all the other ones! i am not prepared for the unknown and unknowable!

  7. I’m going to serve a flank steak with chimichurri this weekend and have been pouring over all of the recipes out there (not to mention the parsley/cilantro conundrum). Would this be ideal on meat or are the components geared towards plantain dipping?

  8. would be just as at home with meat. no doubt.

  9. Austin Girl

    Thanks so much for the explanation! I actually found y’all’s site through MDA, and I appreciated Mark’s take on potatoes, since it seems more real-World-friendly than some of the more dogmatic approaches I’ve read. That y’all defined “paleo-friendly” based more on the oil used for cooking, rather than what was being cooked, makes perfect sense to me now.
    I keep my daily carbs between 50g and 100g on average, so your lovely take on plantain (or potato) fries is right up my alley. Thanks again for the info and for all of y’all’s great food ideas!!

  10. megan!! do it!! im doing it!! we’ll be brave together!

  11. Being Cuban we have quite a few plantain dishes. If you guys want to know more about Plaintain, both green and ripe, search for cuban recipes online. I’m sure you can find some. My favorite recipe is when they are fried, mashed and refried. After the refry, I usually pour some lime/lemon juice on top with sea salt. An alternative would be pouring the same but mixing in some cilantro (not a big cuban spice), fresh garlic, lime juice and a bit of butter or fat of your choice. You can also bake them when ripe in the oven or roast them on the BBQ with the peel on. This is a nice side dish to a good steak. If you boil them when green you can then make smashed plantains with bacon fat, bacon bits, garlic and salt, a great substitute for those of us who are not really potato eaters (dislike them). It also helps that sometimes in Latin markets in Miami you can get 10 for a dollar, you really can beat that. You can always freeze them and use them later.

  12. […] credit: healthbent Share this:EmailFacebookStumbleUpon Posted in: Appetizers, Baking, Entrées / Main Dishes, Food, […]

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