Recently I shared my beginner’s guide to plantains (if you missed it you can read it here). They are typically used as a side dish or appetizer, but plantains are versatile and used in many ways.
Since leaving Miami, I’ve often craved the plantain soup that I used to get at one of my favorite Cuban restaurants, La Carreta. They have several La Carreta locations, but I always went to the one in Little Havana. They had the best plantain soup in the city.
I never thought about making homemade plantain soup, thinking it would take hours of preparation and a thousand items for the recipe. But thanks to Google and some experimentation, I managed to conjure up an incredibly tasty and filling plantain soup, that was also easy to make.
Cuban Style Plantain Soup
- 1 cup celery
- 1 cup onion finely chopped
- 1 ½ cups of carrots, chopped into small pieces
- 4 cloves of garlic, minced
- 3 large green plantains (2 for the soup, 1 for tostones or chips)
- 6 cups of vegetable stock (or chicken stock)
- 1 tablespoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon turmeric
- 2 bay leaves
- Dash of cayenne pepper (or as much to your liking)
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Olive oil for sautéing the veggies
Sauté the celery, onions and carrots until they softened and the onions start becoming translucent. Add the garlic and cook everything for a few more minutes on the stove top. Turn the heat to high and add the stock, 2 of the green plantains (peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks), cumin, salt and pepper, turmeric, bay leaves and cayenne pepper and let it come to a boil.
Let it boil for a few minutes, then turn the temperature down to a low simmer, cover and let it simmer for about an hour (until the plantain chunks are VERY TENDER).
Scoop out the bay leaves and discard them. Scoop out the plantains along with a little bit of the soup broth into a blender or food processor. Blend until smooth (or as smooth as you want. I like mine with a few pieces still chunky for texture). Pour that back into the broth, cook a few more minutes and it’s done.
EASY PEASY!
I peeled my other plantain and made tostones as my side. One suggestion is to peel the plantain and use a mandolin to cut long think slices and fry those to make plantain chips to top off the soup. That’s typically how they serve it at La Carreta.
I would have used my mandolin, but I’ve seen too many chefs and cooks slice portions of their fingers off because they didn’t use the safety grip feature. I know myself too well. I probably wouldn’t have used the safety grip and ended up at Erlanger Hospital’s ER – AGAIN!
When I had my first taste, I am pretty sure I was doing the Cuban salsa happy dance. It was close to the restaurant version, and I was one happy soup slurping camper!
But wait, there's more in the Kitchen Corner this week...
I’ve been writing a lot about Mexican and Guatemalan Food for our Taco Tuesday series, so when I say the word tamale you tend to picture the ones you might get at these restaurants.
Typically made with masa (corn dough) and cooked wrapped up in a banana leaf or corn husk. The tamale is stuffed with meat, cheese, chilies or vegetables depending on the taste preference,
But apparently, Cubans or at least my mom has a variation of the dish known as tamal en cazuela, meaning Tamale made in a deep pan.
She makes hers with pork, cornmeal, seasonings and onions. It’s like a hearty cornmeal porridge.
You’ll need one pound of pork cut into square chunks. Mojo, onions, Olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic powder, cumin, Sazon, pepper and onion powder, and one 8-ounce can of cream of corn.
- Marinate the pork with some Mojo, salt, pepper and garlic powder.
- Put some Olive oil in a deep pan and cook the pork along with half of a sweet onion, diced. Once cooked we set the pork aside.
- In the same pan add 1 and a half cups of finely ground corn meal and three cups of water, one seasoning pack of Sazon, some cumin, pepper, onion powder, and garlic powder to your liking.
Now is when the fun begins. This is almost the same as making grits or polenta, meaning you need to keep stirring and stirring and, if needed add more water, or a touch of white wine. The temperature is set at medium-to-medium high heat. The final consistency is like porridge or thick grits. Once you get to that consistency add the pork and onions back in. Also, add one 8 ounce can of cream of corn. Cook on low for 15-20 minutes, stirring frequently. Taste it while cooking in case you want to add more seasoning or a dash of hot sauce.
You may think it doesn’t look pretty, but it is a bowl of comfort food that even Goldilocks would approve of.