Sri Lanka: vegan banana blossom curry

For this week’s stop on our vegan world tour, we find ourselves in Sri Lanka where we cook with a very interesting ingredient: fresh banana blossom. This vegan banana blossom curry is incredibly rich and tasty yet and is yet very fast to make.

Sri Lankan cuisine

Sri Lanka is a tropical island nation located south east of the Indian subcontinent. The country’s tropical climate makes growing fruit and vegetables very easy and many different fruits, like jackfruit, plantain, and coconut are incorporated into savoury dishes ​[1]–[4]​. A large variety of other vegetables, such as okra, drumstick, tomato, and eggplant are featured heavily. Seafood is also very popular. Just like in neighbouring India, a large variety of spices are prominent. Similar to South India, Sri Lankan cuisine includes plenty of curry leaves, mustard seeds, toasted dal (chana dal and urid dal), asafoetida and tamarind, along with onion, garlic and ginger.

Sri Lankan cuisine is also influenced heavily by South East Asia and different European colonial powers, such as the Netherlands and Britain. Different dals and vegetable curries served alongside rice and flatbreads like roti and paratha create a cornerstone in Sri Lankan cuisine. Among the many Sri Lankan curries, you can find dishes like polos, a jackfruit curry with coconut milk, parippu (a spicy red lentil dal) and kuzhambu – a series of Tamil curries with different lentils, vegetables and tamarind ​[5]​. Kottu is a popular and interesting streetfood dish where old roti (pan fried flatbread) is shredded and fried in a pan with spices and vegetables, similar to a noodle stir fry.

The Dutch colonial powers who ruled in Sri Lanka prior to the British taking over have left a few marks on the Sri Lankan cuisine. You can still find lamprais (Ditch for lumpy rice), a dish where rice and Dutch meatballs are wrapped in banana leaves together with curry and sambal and steamed. Sambal is a chili paste usually made with dried chili and grated coconut and is served along many Sri Lankan meals. If yo are not having chili and coconut sambal, you might eat your meal with pickled vegetables or lunumiris, a paste of onion and chili to add even more flavour and variation to your plate.

Banana blossom curry

For our visit to Sri Lanka I decided to make a vegan banana blossom curry. The curry dish itself is a typical coconut curry with Sri Lankan spices like curry leaves and ginger ​[1], [6]–[8]​ served with rice. Vegetable curries are very common in Sri Lanka and come in a multitude of varieties. What makes this particular vegan vegetable curry stand out is the hero of the dish, the banana blossom.

Banana blossom

Banana blossom is a large, deep purple part of the banana plant, hanging from the bottom of a bunch of bananas. Several layers of dark, deep purple specialized leaves (called bracts) make up a layered structure reminiscent of a head of cabbage. When these bracts are peeled away, they reveal rows of flowers which develop into bananas or plantains.

Banana blossoms are also referred to as banana flower or heart of banana (because they look a bit like anatomical hearts, as opposed to heart of palm which is the central part of certain palm trees). Banana blossoms are used in cooking across Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia and is found in curries, like the one posted here, or in stir fries and dry curries​[7]​, battered and deep fried tempura style, used in salads​[9]​ or shredded and made into vada ​[10]​, a Sri Lankan or South Indian type of deep savoury fried ball or donut.

In vegan circles, banana blossom is sometimes used to add texture to batter to mimic fried fish ​[11], [12]​, for instance in “fish” and chips dishes. Similar to how jackfruit has become the go to vegan substitute for stringy meats, like pulled pork, or to replace chicken in Kabuli Pulau or beef in Malaysian rendang.

To cook with the banana blossom ​[9], [13]​, the outer, tougher bract are discarded by peeling of several layers until the pale yellow centre is exposed, see short video below. This centre can then be shredded and used for cooking. Some recipes incorporate the flowers themselves, either on their own or together with the undeveloped inner bracts.

How to prepare banana blossom

Conclusion

Exploring banana blossom as a new ingredient (to me) was very fun and felt like it captured the essence of this blog for me: finding new ingredients and being exposed to new ways of cooking. The flavour of the banana blossom is sometimes described as similar to artichoke but I did not find it tasted much of anything, at least not in this curry. It’s mild flavour was sadly overpowered. I will try to cook banana blossom again using some other recipe. The curry sauce on the other hand was great. Incredibly rich and tasty considering the few ingredients and very fast cooking time. I will definitely make the curry again but maybe with another vegetable.

Sri lanka vegan banana blossom curry recipe

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Banana blossom curry

Course Main Course

Cuisine South Asian, Sri Lanka

Keyword curry

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes minutes

Servings 2 portions

Ingredients

• 1 banana blossom ~500 g
• 2 tbsp oil, e.g. canola or coconut
• 1 sprig curry leaves optional
• ½ onion, sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, sliced
• 1 knob ginger, grated
• 1 green chili, cut length-wise
• 300 mL coconut milk
• ¼ tsp chili powder
• ¼ tsp chili flakes
• 1 tsp turmeric
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 tsp tamarind juice or lime juice

Instructions

Prepare the banana blossom

• Peel off the outermost several layers of the banana blossom until the small arrays of flowers are less developed and the large leaves are a white yellow instead of deep purple.
• Cut the remaining banana blossom into quarters and slice thinly. Immediately place the cut pieces in a bowl of water.
• The small flowers can be discarded or used in the curry. To use the flowers, peel out the small, hard pistil. It is hard and can be unpleasant to eat.
• Chop the flowers as well and add to the bowl of water.

Curry

• Heat the oil on medium to high heat and fry the curry leaves for a few seconds (if using).
• Add the onion, garlic and green chili. Fry until onion is golden.
• Meanwhile, drain and rinse the chopped banana blossom. Squeeze out the water.
• Add spices and ginger and stir in the banana blossom.
• Cook for 5 minutes.
• Add the coconut milk and cook for another 5 minutes.
• Taste and add tamarind or lime juice as needed.
• Serve with rice

Sri Lanka vegan banana blossom curry recipe instructions