Indian-Inspired Banana Bread

I grew up under two, distinct types of southern: the sweet tea and biscuits kind and the puttu and pazham type. So, it’s natural a lot of my food concoctions end up colliding with my cultural identities. Not to mention, I look for just about any excuse to add the staple Indian ingredient, cardamom, to a recipe.

Although banana bread is the universal recipe to make when you realize you bought way too many bananas and now they’re going brown, there is a classic southern version of the bread that includes buttermilk and pecans. I love the super moist taste with the buttery crunch of pecans so I thought of how I could keep these elements, but with an Indian-twist.

Check out my Indian-inspired banana bread recipe below featuring ripe plantains and spice-roasted cashews. I serve this with my Rose Water & Cardamom Calamondin Marmalade. Hope you like it!

THE INGREDIENTS

• 2 ripe plantains
• 1/3 cup butter
• 1 tsp baking soda
• pinch of salt
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 egg, beaten
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup cashews
• 1 tsp ground cardamom
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

 HOW TO MAKE IT

1. Preheat oven to 350˚ F
2. Start by taking both of the plantains and microwaving them for about 2 minutes. You’ll see the peel will turn a dark brown. Remove the peel and drop the plantains into a large mixing bowl. Mash the plantains so that it’s smooth with few chunks. Set this aside.
3. Now, in a small sauce pan on medium high heat, add the cashews, brown sugar, and cardamom to begin lightly roasting the cashews. Make sure to keep the cashews moving in the pan so the brown sugar and cardamom evenly coat the nuts. Once coated and toasted, remove from heat and set aside.

   

4. Come back to the bowl with the mashed plantains and use a hand mixer to blend in the butter.
5. Once the butter is blended in, add the baking soda, salt, sugar, egg, and vanilla extract.
6. Slowly mix in the flour to create your batter.
7. Pour the batter into your greased cake pan. (I used two mini bundt cake pans.) Bake for 50 minutes or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean. Once removed from the oven, let the bread cool in its pan for about 10 minutes before moving it to a wire rack for further cooling.