Alternative flours like coconut, almond, oat, and sweet potato have been getting a lot of buzz lately as they add different nutrients and flavors to recipes. The latest flour people are experimenting with is banana flour, a finely ground starch made from green bananas. Banana flour happens to be gluten-free and it’s high in potassium, fiber, and resistant starch. Here’s everything you need to know about this alternative flour.
It’s Made From Unripe Green Bananas
As bananas ripen, they get sweeter, so green bananas aren’t yet ripe and they taste more like potatoes than sweet plantains or bananas. After it’s dried and ground, banana flour has a light brown color, which will make your baked goods a bit darker than they would be if you were using regular all-purpose flour.
It Has Gut-Friendly Resistant Starch
Like bananas, banana flour is a good source of resistant starch. Resistant starch is a type of prebiotic fiber that feeds healthy bacteria in your gut, keeps your blood sugar steady, and it breaks down slowly in your digestive track making you feel fuller longer.
It Has a Light Banana Flavor
Because banana flour is made by chopping up and drying peeled green bananas and then grinding them into a fine powder and texture, it has a light banana flavor. You may have to reduce the amount of sugar in your recipe when using banana flour.
It’s Good For Baking
The obvious choice for banana flour is to use it in banana bread, but you can also make savory baked goods with it like zucchini bread or spiced carrot and beet cupcakes.
It Can Be Used to Thicken Soups, Curries, and Smoothies
Due to the starch in banana flour, it can be added to smoothies for extra fiber and it can thicken soups and curries.
