How to Caramelize Bananas and 5 Ways to Use Them
We partnered with The Produce Moms for GROW Month! Keep reading to learn how to caramelize bananas and 5 great ways to enjoy them!
Bananas make a tasty snack at any time of the day or night. And while we love their soft texture and sweet taste as-is, there’s always room for an upgrade! Here’s an easy way to caramelize bananas to use in breakfasts, desserts, and snacks. With help from the minds at Organics Unlimited, we’ve included five delicious ways to use them to get you started!
How to Caramelize Bananas
Like some of our other favorite fruits and veggies, caramelization adds new dimensions to the flavor and richness of bananas. Plain banana slices make a great topping or addition to cereal, oatmeal, crepes, and all kinds of other dishes. But caramelized bananas take those dishes to the next level!
It’s easy to caramelize bananas, but it requires a bit of a delicate touch. You’ll need to cook them at the right heat and with the right ingredients to get the best results. We find that organic bananas like the tasty ones available from Organics Unlimited caramelize better than others. And the best way to cook them is with coconut oil and sugar along with another sweetener, like agave syrup.
Ingredients
● 1 banana, finally sliced
● 1 tsp coconut oil
● 1 tbsp agave syrup or any sweetener syrup you like it
● 1 tsp coconut sugar
Directions
- Place a frying pan over medium heat with the coconut oil, agave syrup and coconut sugar.
- Add the banana slices when the mixture is melting and bubbling.
- Cook for a few minutes on each side until the slices are fully coated.
5 Ways to Use Caramelized Bananas
Now that you have a pan full of delectable caramelized bananas, what should you do with them? You could pop them right in your mouth, or you could use one of these five delicious ideas:
On ice cream
Use caramelized bananas to top your ice cream. Capture the flavor of a banana split or float them on a sea of hot fudge. They’ll fit right in with just about any flavor of ice cream! You can even use bananas to make your own ice cream. Check out this Banana Nice Cream Sundae and top it with caramelized bananas!
On waffles
Waffles were practically made to be topped with bananas. Whether you’re making belgian waffles or just using the easy freezer variety, these melt-in-your-mouth banana slices pair nicely with a little syrup and butter.
In oatmeal
Elevate your oatmeal with some fruity sweetness. You can place these bananas on top of the oatmeal or stir them into your bowl. We recommend topping it all with a pinch of cinnamon or brown sugar.
On peanut butter toast
Peanut butter and banana sandwiches make a great snack whenever your sweet tooth strikes. But toasting the bread and caramelizing the bananas turns an everyday bite into a memorable, mouth-watering dish that you and your kids will love.
Over brownies
Brownies are a canvas for creating a great dessert, and these caramelized bananas will turn yours into a masterpiece. No matter what flavor of brownies you’re baking, scoop some caramelized bananas on top for an irresistible treat. Ice cream is optional! What did you think of our caramelized bananas? Do you have a favorite way to use them that we didn’t mention? Let us know in the comments or tag us on Instagram @theproducemoms and @organics.unlimited.
Alejandra de Jesus Nicolas Garcia
Alejandra was one of the first GROW university graduates, earning a degree in International Relations in 2012. Today, at 29, she is living independently and is part of the internal audit team for one of the largest supermarket chains in Mexico, in charge of the northwestern region from Michoacán to Tijuana.
The oldest of five children, Alejandra was the first in her family to go to university. Her mother works part time running the breakfast room at the primary school in Cerro de Ortega, a small town in Colima. Her father is a bricklayer and painter. Because of her example and GROW’s help, one of Alejandra’s three brothers has completed his university degree in engineering. As for her other siblings, one has completed high school and the other is currently attending.
Always interested in improving her opportunities in the workplace, she is continuing her studies to get a second degree in public accounting and finance at the Technological University of Mexico. Her goal is to become a CPA and specialize in auditing.
Alejandra, cognizant of the opportunities she has been given, has helped herself and her family rise from poverty. She has developed self-confidence and fulfillment that she never dreamed were possible.
Behind the Bananas: Growing Communities with Organics Unlimited
With GROW Month starting on September 1st, we partnered with The Produce Moms. Read below to see what they said and to join in on our new BinGROW game!
What’s one fruit you always keep stocked in your kitchen? For us, it’s the banana! Nature’s grab-and-go snack is perfect for busy breakfasts or packed lunches, and it’s just as good for cooking into sweet and tasty recipes. We always keep a bunch hanging on our fruit basket!
It takes a lot of hardworking growers to bring this sweet and versatile fruit to your kitchen counter – but not all bananas are grown equally. That’s why we’re bananas about Organics Unlimited, who are dedicated to social responsibility and premium fruit. Let’s play some BinGROW and unpeel the story behind the bananas!
Who’s Behind Organics Unlimited?
We can only enjoy tasty bananas because of the people who grow them – and Organics Unlimited knows it! Since its founding in 2000, Organics Unlimited has made the wellbeing of its growers a priority. Founders Mayra and Manuel Velazquez de Leon know that their workers are the key to growing their great bananas, plantains, and coconuts, so they make sure that they have everything they need to grow too.
Organics Unlimited bananas hail from agricultural communities in Mexico and Ecuador, in which many families live in poverty. Many of them lack access to education, health services, and sometimes even basic necessities like clean drinking water. Organics Unlimited believes that uplifting the communities where their growers live improves the quality of the produce they grow, but for them it’s not all about the bananas: the Velazquez de Leon family has roots here too!
A GROWing Social Responsibility
That’s why Organics Unlimited founded the GROW social responsibility program in 2005. GROW is all about Giving Resources and Opportunities to Workers and does just that by providing dental and vision care, a milk program, clean drinking water, and community support.
They’re breaking the cycle of poverty with childhood education, higher education, and tutoring, as well as educational necessities like computers, internet access, and student housing. Microbusiness opportunities allow members of the community to become entrepreneurs, make a living, and bring new services to remote regions.
Through GROW, Organics Unlimited partners with organizations like Project Amigo in Mexico and Children International in Ecuador to ensure communities get these necessities. These resources aren’t just for the workers themselves, though, or even just their families. They’re available to the growing community as a whole! Through GROW, Organics Unlimited is working to lift up disadvantaged communities and improve the lives of the people who live there. It’s their way of giving back to the people who make such tasty bananas possible.
A Commitment to Sustainability
Organics Unlimited was growing organic fruit before organic food was cool. Mayra’s father, Carlos Cortes, was the first to bring commercially grown organic bananas to the United States in 1972. His delicious fruit was grown using natural methods he learned from his father. And one of the key ingredients in this natural banana growing process is a healthy environment.
Today’s Organics Unlimited bananas are some of the best and most sustainable around thanks to growing methods inspired by the wild. These farming practices enable Organics Unlimited to grow tasty, nutritious bananas without the use of chemicals, which could potentially be harmful to consumers. Through organic farming and careful stewardship, these growers sustain healthy farmland without disrupting nature’s balance.
A Fairly Traded Alternative
When you pick up a ripe bunch of these bananas in your local grocery store, you can be confident that they’re traded fairly and that no one in the supply chain is left out. GROW is the Organics Unlimited answer to other more commonly known fair trade programs. But unlike those, GROW doesn’t charge admin fees or set minimum prices. This empowers growers and helps them keep their bargaining power in an industry that’s often looking out for the lowest cost.
Buying Organics Unlimited bananas contributes directly to the people who grow them. For each case of Organics Unlimited bananas, customers pay approximately $.60 extra. This money is put back into the growing communities: most of it goes into community initiatives like education or healthcare, while 10 percent is saved in an emergency disaster relief fund to ensure that no one is left behind when the unexpected happens. You might think that 60 cents doesn’t sound like much for so many bananas, but to date customers have raised over $2.7 million through GROW!
Let’s Play B-I-N-GROW!
Put what you’ve learned about Organics Unlimited to use in this fun game of Bingo! This game is perfect for classrooms or groups of homeschoolers. We’ve given you all the resources you need to play below – just click the image! All you need to do is cut up a copy of the Caller’s Card and make some tokens for your players.
Each word on the BinGROW Caller’s Card is hidden somewhere in the text! Read this informative lesson aloud to your students and have them listen for each word or phrase. They only need four in a row to win, so don’t be afraid to award multiple winners.
We think Organics Unlimited bananas make great prizes for your BinGROW winners, but maybe you’ll give out bananas to every participant just for playing! They’ll be excited to try these tasty, socially responsible bananas. And each one they each contributes to a better world – which just makes them that much more sweeter!
