This recipe teaches you how to cook Jamaican Plantain Porridge with a printable recipe card. It is a viral post because of the fool proof technique detailed in making vegan plantain porridge the way a Jamaican grandmother would. In fact, it was made by mother for me to help me produce ample breast milk whilst breastfeeding. I shot this post of her doing just that so the hands you see are of a Jamaican grandmother cooking plantain porridge. You can find other delicious plantain recipes here on my blog.
There is something incredibly ironic about this post. We Chef and Steward are writing about and photographing porridge. Don’t get us wrong, we love porridge. Well, I the The Steward do. The Chef claims he had way too much as a child. I remember sitting over a few bowls myself, squishing around the same mouthful for minutes to the soundtrack lecture of “starving children in Africa.” But this porridge promises only good memories.
Porridge is the stuff on breakfast tables set by loving caring mothers all across the Caribbean. While others have plain porridges, trust the bright, lively and colourful Caribbean folks to put their own spin to it and as my artist friend Abdulla Qureshi would say, “joujed it up” quite a bit.
There is nothing plain about porridge in the Jamaica or the Caribbean. Well you could say there is nothing plain about the Caribbean, period. For example, vanilla is not considered a stand alone ingredient- it’s way too boring. It’s just an essential ingredient in a symphony of flavours that meld together in perfect harmony.
Caribbean Porridge for Breakfast Tradition
There is an entire caste system dedicated to porridge back home. Thick, creamy, sweet porridges showed wealth in the olden days. Thin, watery ones that could flow out of a baby bottle meant that a family was certainly struggling and such babies were seen to be suffering from malnutrition and neglect. A good porridge needs to be had with a spoon.
Then there is the type of porridge. Easily accessible ingredients do not create so much of a stir and neither do easily made porridges. Oatmeal and cornmeal varieties were a must several times a week for growing children, pregnant or breastfeeding women or the elderly and more intricate varieties like Plantain Porridge, Peanut Porridge, Banana Porridge and Hominy Corn are the ones you discover in sweet surprise in your bowl every now and then.
Cook like a Jamaican Granny
Of course one of the blessings of having grandma around – especially one who cooks so well she makes The Chef eat things he swore off – is that the sweet surprises occur very often in our kitchen. Grandma loves to cook and does it excellently and knows that porridge is a great way to increase and sustain breast milk supply. Little wonder we have had no problems in that arena. She got so excited when she saw these green bananas at Spinneys supermarket last night.
She was beaming as she walked towards me… and as soon as she was close she went on and on about how “nice and lovely” the green plantains were as opposed to the “big and ugly” ones she previously lamented about. “I am going to make you a nice, nice plantain porridge tomorrow,” she chirped. Now I know where I got that eagerness for food shopping. Yes, like my smile, ‘I got it from my mom.’
I knew then that I would have to work with her to share the recipe with you. It’s a foolproof one that will have you wondering why on earth you didn’t make a larger quantity.
Other great Plantain recipes on this blog:
Jamaican Breakfast Fried Ripe Plantains and Eggs
Here are the steps in pictures:
Method:
Wash and peel and slice green plantains and slice in about 1.3 inches. Learn how to peel plantains, the same process applies for both green and ripe ones.
Put the plantains and water in a blender and pulse until chopped fine then blend to a smooth puree
Pour it in a pot with cinnamon and turn on the stove on low heat. Keep stirring to prevent lumps. A lumpy plantain porridge is the result of an untended pot.
Add salt and stir.
Add coconut cream and stir for about 15 minutes
Add milk and stir.
Add vanilla and nutmeg and stir.
After about 20-25 minutes of total cooking time, turn off heat, add condensed milk.
Enjoy! (Serves 2)
Plantain Porridge
This recipe teaches you how to cook Jamaican Plantain Porridge. It is a viral post because of the fool proof technique detailed in making almost vegan (more vegetarian) plantain porridge the way a Jamaican grandmother would. In fact, it was made by mother for me to help me produce ample breast milk whilst breastfeeding. It is a wholesome, healthy breakfast for the entire family and quite tasty and budget friendly and another great use of green plantains / platano. Learn how to make fresh coconut milk from scratch to use in this recipe.
Ingredients
- 380-400g green plantains
- 3 cups water
- 1 cup coconut cream (learn how to make it)
- 1 cinnamon bark
- 1/8 teaspoon salt (or a pinch)
- 1 cup milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2/3 cup sweetened condensed milk
- freshly grated nutmeg (about 1/8 tsp or 6 slides on grater)
Instructions
- If you need to make coconut milk from scratch, here is how to do so. Make it and set it aside.
- Wash and peel and slice green plantains and slice in about 1.5 inches. Learn how to peel plantains, the same process applies for both green and ripe ones.
- Put the plantains and water in a blender and pulse until chopped fine then blend to a smooth pure.
- Pour it in a pot with cinnamon and turn on the stove on low heat. Keep stirring to prevent lumps. A lumpy plantain porridge is the result of an untended pot. Add salt and stir.
- Add coconut cream and stir for about 15 minutes
- Add milk and stir.
- Add vanilla and nutmeg and stir.
- After about 20-25 minutes of total cooking time, turn off heat, add condensed milk.
Enjoy! (Serves 2)
Notes
You can use store bought coconut cream and coconut milk for this recipe instead of fresh coconut cream and cow’s milk. There will be a compromise in taste, however, because nothing compares to fresh coconut milk in my estimation. Nevertheless, it can be done and will still be tasty.
Recommended Products
As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Would you buy a book of Jamaican and Caribbean porridges? Comment below to let me know!
Oh the porridge I used to eat in Jamaica!!!! Happy thoughts 🙂
Isn’t it amazing how memories float back with such a simple meal?
This looks so delicious and I will definitely be making some. I’ve never thought about using plantains to make porridge.
As a child, my parents used to give me cornmeal porridge and hardough bread which i still adore to this day.
Yes… what could be better than bread dunked in porridge!?! I still go for bread with porridge every now and then. 😀
Reblogged this on Variety Cooking by Sophia and commented:
I love to see recipes of my mom heritage, I can’t wait to make this one.
I NEED to make this! Thank you so much for sharing! I love porridge and this looks wonderful.
Anchal
You do and you will love it!
I will! Please let me know if you ever intend to give Jamaican cooking lessons – I visit Dubai often and would love to learn from you!
Anchal
Yes we do. We are based in Ras Al Khaimah now and we can definitely arrange something once baby is a little older.
Wonderful! I look forward to it and congratulations on the birth of your beautiful child!
I am from Haiti and this is my FAVORITE porridge ever! We do not use coconut milk in Haiti and we also add lime peel and star anise
Wow thanks for sharing your traditional Haitian version. I understand why its your favourite porridge.
and I forgot to add that in Haiti we have it with a piece a buttered bread. That butter just melts with you dip it in!
Ooooh butter on the bread is an absolutely marvelous idea!
This is a long forgotten oldie but goodie. My mom was expert at this. As I can no longer tolerate dairy I will omit the condensed milk.
Yes you may omit the condensed milk and increase the cream. You may also substitute coconut cream for the milk called for.
Such a lovely post, Kari! You write and photograph like a dream. I love the peek into Jamaican culture and family background, which is such a quintessential part of your blog. I definitely want to try this. Could I skip the condensed milk and use regular milk and brown sugar instead? If so, how much?
A compliment about my writing means everything coming from you as a brilliant writer/editor yourself! Humbled. Yes you could skip the condensed milk and increase the coconut cream instead. Note the recipe already calls for milk. Add sugar to taste.
Wow nice recipe…looking for a nice porridge for my baby. Can’t wait to try this out for him.
I absolutely love porridge, I make at least three different versions a week. I am married to an American woman and she loves my plantain and cornmeal porridge with pinched bread yum, she would eat the bread with anything. I also make the triple threat which is plantain, cornmeal and oatmeal, which by the way is my son’s favorite. My daughters is peanut with no cinnamon. Whenever I’m in the kitchen I always have grandma in my thoughts.
This comment is everything why we do what we do!
Just made this & it’s so delicious . Absolutely my favorite!
So happy you love it as much as we do!
I absolutely ❤❤❤ this recipe. I just made it (with green bananas) and my son asked me to never make the cornmeal porridge again. I’m American and my fiance is Jamaican. He said he ate so much porridge as a child that he doesn’t care for it as much now. But as soon as he tried it, after me forcing him to try it, he said he’ll consider eating it again if I make it this way. Thank you so much for sharing. Blessings?.
This made ny day! So happy that you struck note with your fiancé. I think my toddler feels that way about oatmeal from he was two – we Jamaican mamas are notorious for pushing too much of a good thing!
How many plantains is 400 g?
I cannot say. Plantains come in all different sizes, hence why weight is the most accurate measure. You can weigh the amount plantains that are over 1 lb equivalent in the market.
This recipe looks amazing I have to try it. I love Jamaican food as my parents are from the island’s Dominican and Colombian I grew eating different types of porridge including sweet plantain but never green plantain.
Thanks so much for coming bby and leaving a comment Macy! I am so happy you did because now you also taught me something and gave me some more research to do. I hope you will subscribe because I am putting out blog posts 3x weekly.
I have never tried to taste a Jamaican porridge but this looks really good and tasty. I am going to try this at home, thank you for sharing your recipe.
Thanks Amy, be sure to share my recipe as well!
This looks great, I have never heard of this before. I am going to keep an eye out for plantains for this recipe. they carry them at my grocery, they carry them from time to time. Thanks!
SO happy to hear! They are definitely going to help your meal planning significantly!
I love how the Caribbean islands all share a similar love of warm porridges. In PR we eat crema de guineo or platano. It’s so good.
So wonderful to hear you love it in the PR as well. Thanks for sharing that Marta!
Wow! I have never heard of plantain porridge! I think this recipe looks so delicious and unique! I am definitely going to try it soon!
Oh my….. this sounds absolutely delicious! Sounds more like a dessert than breakfast! My family would lap this up if I served it in the morning. I think that’s so on the cards this weekend!
I love this porridge. I normally use yellow plantains and never green ones. I’ll love to try this very soon.
This porridge looks like a bowl of pure comfort food. Love your writing and your pics.
This porridge looks so hearty and delicious! A warm bowl of Jamaican porridge sounds just like what I need! Can’t wait to try it out!
I love plantains and porridge, but this recipe is quite unique and unlike any other I’ve seen! Looks delicious and full of flavor, two things I look for when trying out new things. I can’t wait to try it. Thanks for sharing!
I have never thought of making a plantain porridge, wow! What a great idea. I love plantain so this is on my list to make asap now. Thanks for sharing!
So much better than plain porridge! I love the flavor from the plantain, takes me right back to the Caribbean!
We love plantains and use it quite a lot in our Indian recipes. I love this porridge and this is just simple and loaded with flavor. A great porridge to start the day.
This sounds like such a warm and cozy breakfast. Can’t wait to pick up to plantains and try it!
I have never had Jamaican Plantain Porridge but after reading your post I want some. This seems very simple to make so I think I will be trying this soon. So warm and comforting , I can’t wait.
Definitely sounds like my kind of breakfast. I have had plantain before but never with porridge! I love anything that sticks to the ribs and I think this most definitely will set me up for the day! Can’t wait to try it!