Banana Recipes

The Best Banana Recipes From LoveToKnow

Here are 71 great time-tested recipes you can cook today!

Most Americans know bananas as a sweet something to slice onto their breakfast cereal, or a 'tidy' fruit they can carry to work in a brown bag for a snack. And, it's certainly true that bananas are the neatest of fruit to eat, coming in their own wrapper that also does duty as a fruit handle, keeping your hands clean.

Bananas are also often seen in fruit salads such as Waldorf, or drizzled with sugary sauces and set on fire at your table to a chorus of ohs and ahs.

Not Just for Breakfast or Dessert

The bananas you buy in the supermarket are ripe, which are sweet and suitable for eating out of hand.

But did you know that unripe bananas, and their close relatives the plantains, are a staple food in their native areas, and are the local equivalent of the potato? The riper it (or plantain) gets, the sweeter, so unripe versions are simply a starchy vegetable that can be baked or boiled or fried.

Bananas can even be dried and ground into a flour for making breads, pastries and noodles.

Nutrition at Hand

Bananas are a great source of vitamins A and C, as well as potassium. People who are taking high blood pressure medication, which acts as a diuretic and can deplete potassium, are recommended to eat at least one banana a day for potassium, unless their medication is one of the newer 'potassium preserving' formulations. Potassium from food is much safer than supplements, which can add too much potassium to your bloodstream, so eat a banana and relax.