Green Plantain Soup (Velouté)

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Green plantains cooked down in chicken broth with onion, garlic, carrot and cumin, then blended smooth. The starch in the plantain is what thickens it, so there is no flour and no cream. Serves four.

Prep Time10

Cook Time30

Total Time40

Course: Soups

Cuisine: Colombian

Keyword: Creamy plantain soup

Servings:

Calories: 210kcal

Author: Angela Giraldo

Ingredients

3 green plantains hard and completely green
8 cups chicken broth vegetable broth, or water
1 onion
2 garlic cloves
1 carrot
½ teaspoon cumin
2 green onions
Salt and pepper to taste
Cilantro to finish

Instructions

In a blender, put the onion, the garlic and a cup of the broth or water, and blend.
Pour it into a medium pot and bring to the boil. Lower to medium heat and add the peeled and chopped plantains, the chopped green onions, the carrot cut small, the cumin and the rest of the broth. Season with salt and pepper.
Cover and cook over medium-low heat for 30 minutes, until the plantain is soft enough to crush against the side of the pot.
Blend the soup until smooth. Do it in batches, filling the jug no more than halfway and holding the lid down under a folded cloth, because hot liquid turns to steam in a sealed jug and pushes the lid off.
Return it to the pot, stir and cook for another 10 minutes.
If it is thicker than you want, loosen it with more broth or water.
Serve with cilantro on top.

Notes

There is no flour, no cream and no roux in this soup. What thickens it is the starch in the green plantain, which is why the plantain has to be hard and completely green: a plantain that has started to turn yellow has already converted some of that starch to sugar, and it gives a thinner, sweeter soup.

Blending hot soup is the one dangerous step on this page. Half a jug at a time, lid held down, lowest speed first. A stick blender straight in the pot avoids it entirely.

Nutrition