These arepas are made from boiled ripe plantain rather than corn dough. Half a cup of masarepa goes in to bind them and nothing more, so what you taste is plantain: sweet, soft, and a little sticky.
They cook on a griddle like any arepa, and they are breakfast food, eaten with fresh cheese or butter.
Not a corn arepa
Worth setting expectations, because if you arrive expecting a normal arepa you will think these have gone wrong.
A corn arepa is masarepa and water, and it comes out firm, neutral and slightly dry, which is why it works as bread. These are the opposite: mostly fruit, noticeably sweet, soft all the way through, and softer still the next day. The masarepa here is a binder, not the main ingredient.
They are eaten in Colombia and in Venezuela, where they are commonly split and filled like a sandwich. This is not a new or fashionable recipe; it is an old way of using plantains that have gone too ripe to fry neatly.
Boil them in their skins
The recipe says to cook the plantains unpeeled, and that instruction is doing more than saving you a job.
Peeled plantain in boiling water absorbs a lot of it. The mash then carries all that extra moisture into the dough, and you end up adding masarepa to compensate, which is how a plantain arepa turns into a mediocre corn one. The skin keeps the water out.
It also peels off easily once cooked and cooled, which raw plantain famously does not.
Thirty minutes is about right. The plantain should give completely under a fork.
The plantain has to be ripe
Dark skin, soft to the thumb. A green or yellow-firm plantain is still mostly starch: it will not mash to a smooth purée and it will taste of nothing much.
This is a recipe that exists because plantains ripen faster than anyone can eat them. If yours are still firm, wait. There is no way to hurry it and no substitute for it.
Handling a sticky dough
It will be stickier than you expect, and that is correct. There is very little flour holding this together.
The instinct is to add more masarepa until it behaves, and that is the one thing not to do: every spoonful takes the arepa further from soft and sweet and closer to dry and bland. Wet your hands instead. Damp palms stop the dough sticking and let you shape it without adding anything.
Keep them on the thicker side too. A thin plantain arepa has nothing holding it together and breaks when you turn it.
On the griddle
Medium heat, a little butter, three minutes a side. They are already cooked through, so what you are doing is browning the outside and giving them a skin that holds them together.
Sugar burns faster than starch, and these have plenty of it, so watch them more closely than you would a corn arepa. If they colour too fast, turn the heat down rather than taking them off early.
Turn them once. Repeated flipping breaks them.
What to eat them with
Something salty. That is the whole rule, and it is why cheese appears both in the dough and on top: cuajada, queso fresco, mozzarella. Butter melting into a hot one is the simplest version.
A fried egg on top makes it breakfast. Shredded beef makes it lunch.
Other arepas
- Cheese arepas — the corn version, with the cheese in the dough.
- Wheat flour arepas — for when there is no masarepa in the house.
- Aborrajados — the same ripe plantain, fried and stuffed with cheese.
Original recipe in Spanish.
Plantain Arepas FAQ
A normal arepa is corn dough and water. These are mostly boiled ripe plantain, with half a cup of masarepa doing nothing more than binding it. That makes them sweet, much softer, and slightly sticky rather than firm. They are a different thing that happens to be cooked the same way.
Ripe, with the skin dark. Green plantain is starchy and stays that way: it will not mash smooth and it will not sweeten. If yours are still yellow and firm, leave them on the counter for a few days. The sweetness is the entire point of this version.
Because peeled plantain sitting in boiling water takes on a lot of it, and a waterlogged mash makes a dough that will not hold together. The skin keeps the water out. It also comes off easily once the plantain has cooled, which it does not when raw.
Wet your hands rather than adding more masarepa. This dough is stickier than corn arepa dough because it is mostly fruit, and that is normal. Extra flour dries the arepas out and takes away the softness you were after.
Precooked corn flour, sold as P.A.N., Areparina or Goya. It is not masa harina, which is nixtamalised for tortillas, and it is not cornmeal. Here it is only binding the plantain, so the quantity is small, but there is no good substitute for it.
Something salty, to work against the sweetness. Fresh cheese is the standard: cuajada, queso fresco or mozzarella, either mixed into the dough or laid on top. Butter, a fried egg, or shredded beef all work. In Venezuela they are often split open and filled like a sandwich.
📖 Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 large ripe plantains, unpeeled, washed and cut into pieces (ripe, with a dark skin: green plantain will not sweeten or mash)
- 3 tablespoons milk
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- ½ cup masarepa (precooked corn flour) (P.A.N. or Areparina; not masa harina and not cornmeal)
- 1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
- ½ cup cuajada or mozzarella, crumbled (cuajada is a fresh Colombian curd cheese; queso fresco works)
- 1 tablespoon oil or butter, for the griddle
Notas
Instructions
- Cook the plantains in their skins in water for about 30 minutes. Take them off the heat, let them cool, and peel them.
- Mash the plantains with a fork, then add the masarepa, butter, milk and salt.
- Mix well, roll the dough into balls and flatten them into arepas.
- Heat a nonstick pan, grease it with butter, and cook the arepas about 3 minutes a side, until golden.
- Serve hot with butter, cheese, or whatever you like alongside.
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