Vegetarian BBQ recipe: baked plantain with chilli, lime and coriander

Since I got the Big Green Egg, I’m basically doing all my cooking outside, even when it’s raining. Let’s face it, it’s not a proper British BBQ unless you are carrying an umbrella as well as tongs. Great thing about a BGE however is that you can close the lid if it is pouring down, protecting your food if not yourself.
This is another vegetarian BBQ recipe: ripe baked plantain with chilli, lime and coriander leaves. You can either bake it whole in the skin, or do as I did in this recipe and slit the fat plantains lengthways down the centre and bake in half skins.
Green plantain is naturally low GI but the riper it is the more sugar it contains. I think you need the sweetness, you can see above that it caramelises beautifully. Like bananas, plantains contain potassium.

Here is a quick guide to shopping for plantains:

1. Green: unripe, sometimes ‘woody’ in texture. Needs boiling.
2. Pale yellow: semi-ripe
3. Yellow with black spots: fairly ripe. Can be fried.
4. Black: totally ripe. Can be mashed. Need little cooking.

Choose a plantain that is not too green but not too ripe, a pale yellow with a few black spots (between stages 2 and 3). Make sure your coals/charcoal/wood are burnt to a red coal stage rather than with flame especially when BBQ-ing vegetables, particularly delicate ones. However plantain is quite sturdy and the skin protects it from burning.
This is a great addition to the vegan/veggie BBQ repertoire, having its roots in Caribbean cuisine, but will be equally appreciated by carnivores as a carb accompaniment, a change from baked potatoes.

Baked plantain with chilli, lime and coriander recipe

Serves 2 to 4

5 mins preparation, 15 minutes to cook

2 large ripe plantains, slit lengthways in half, retaining the skins
100g of salted butter, room temperature
2 tbsps of sweet chilli sauce, or a few drops of a hotter chilli sauce such as habanero
A handful of fresh coriander leaves
1 lime, cut into quarters

Prepare the plantains.
Mix the butter with the chilli sauce to the strength that you like.
Place the plantains, skin side down, on the BBQ and leave until they look cooked, about fifteen minutes. The skins will start to separate slightly and the plantain will become puffy.
Then flip over the plantains and sear the cut open face. This aids in the caramelisation and makes it look super tasty!
Remove from the BBQ and smear the chilli butter over the hot plantain, sprinkle the coriander leaves and squeeze over some fresh lime juice.
Eat with a fork while hot.