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Plantains Delivery or Pickup
The Instacart guide to plantains
The Instacart app is easy to use, and you can get plantains or your favorite plantain product delivered straight to your door. You can also get your order curbside at a store close to you. When you place your order through Instacart, a friendly Instacart shopper will put together the fresh produce you choose and bring it to your home or office on the same day! When you order fruits and vegetables through Instacart, including plantains, you can save some time and make your day easier.
About plantains
Plantains, also called cooking bananas, are a type of banana. Like other bananas, they're elongated, curved berries that first grew in Australia and Southeast Asia. They're larger and starchier than other types of bananas, and people usually cook them before eating them. Regular bananas become mushy when cooked, but plantains stay firm.
Plantain plants can be as tall as trees, and the leaves can be over eight feet long. People often make paper and textiles from the bark and leaves. The leaves make good disposable plates, as well. Plantain flour is made from dried, ground plantains. It's a popular, gluten-free alternative to conventional wheat flour, and you can substitute it for flour in any recipe. Baked goods with plantain flour taste richer and denser than those with wheat flour.
Plantains grow in huge bunches with multiple tiers or hands. One bunch can weigh over 100 pounds, and it has five to 20 tiers. People usually buy tiers of bananas in stores, and there can be more than 20 fruits per tier. Wild plantains and bananas have larger seeds than domestic varieties that have been bred to be seedless. The small black dots inside some plantains and bananas are immature seeds that will never grow bigger. Â
How to pick out plantains
Green or light yellow plantains are best with savory dishes. As plantains ripen, they often turn black or dark brown in spots or all over. These plantains taste sweeter because more of the starches inside have become sugars, and they taste better with desserts. Ensure the plantains are still firm enough for you to slice or do anything else your recipe calls for. Very ripe plantains make great ingredients for smoothies.
For many people, buying green plantains and then waiting for them to ripen is easiest. However, plantains contain more starch and less moisture than bananas. This means that they ripen at a slower pace. They can take up to five weeks to mature completely. Putting them in the refrigerator will turn the skins brown faster, but it won't alter their taste. Â You can accelerate ripening by putting your plantains in a paper bag. This traps ethylene gas, a natural ripening agent.
Types of plantains
Horn plantains, also called rhino horn plantains, come from Africa. The leaves have red spots, and the fruits are bigger, longer, and less curved than bananas. They can be up to two feet long, and people often keep them as ornamental plants for their interesting coloration. French plantains are smaller, but they taste similar. French Horn plantains are hybrids of the two varieties.
Fe'i bananas, also called mountain plantains, are a different species from other plantains and bananas. They come from the Pacific Islands, and their skins are orange or red. The flesh is orange or yellow, and the sap is pink, purple, or magenta.
Plantains Near Me
Buy your favorite Plantains online with Instacart. Order Plantains from local and national retailers near you and enjoy on-demand, contactless delivery or pickup within 2 hours.