It might seem unusual to add banana peel to this one popular dish 0 but Nigella Lawson says it’s the perfect addition. If you often make curry, Nigella says banana peel can bring “texture” to the meal.
While you might usually throw your banana peel away, Nigella says you should save it instead and put it to use in the meal. The TV chef is well known for her culinary skills and she’s created many cookbooks with her delicious recipes over the years. Nigella has revealed her savvy secret for enhancing a curry’s flavour without wasting common leftovers.
She champions banana peel as a “mellow and aromatic” addition to your spicy concoctions, reports The Mirror.
In ‘Cook, Eat, Repeat’, Nigella divulges her method for incorporating banana skin into her cauliflower curry.
During the TV show accompanying her book, viewers watched as she doused banana peels with boiling water, teasingly promising to “explain later”.
True to her word, she later demonstrated chopping the softened skins into the curry for added “texture”.
But it’s not just about taste – these peels are nutritional powerhouses too.
Health gurus at Holland and Barrett highlight the myriad benefits of banana skin, from blood sugar regulation and digestive health to promoting sleep, supporting kidney function, and energising you before a workout.
In her book, Cook Eat Repeat, she said: “Nothing makes me feel happier in cooking than making a meal out of repurposed scraps. So, I feel quite delighted now that I have found a use for the banana skins that would otherwise end up in the bin after I’ve made yet another banana bread.
“For me, food waste would always be a legitimate cause for guilt,” she added.
Here’s how she prepared her banana peel curry recipe, as detailed in her book Cook, Eat, Repeat.
To whip up this dish, you’ll need three banana peels, bite-sized cauliflower florets and leaves, one teaspoon of turmeric powder, salt to taste, peeled and chopped banana shallots (echalion), four garlic cloves, 1-1 1⁄2 inch ginger – peeled and sliced, a bunch of coriander leaves with stalks, one chopped fresh red chilli, one teaspoon of cinnamon powder, two teaspoons of tomato paste, 400 ml full-fat coconut milk, two and a half teaspoons of lemon juice, one and a half teaspoons of sugar, two teaspoons of sea salt, and vegetable oil for cooking.
Place the banana peels in a large bowl and fill it with enough water to cover the peels. Add a bit of turmeric powder and salt, cover the bowl and let the peels soak.
In a separate bowl, combine garlic, banana shallots, ginger, coriander stalks, fresh red chilli, cinnamon powder and turmeric powder.
Blend these ingredients until you have a smooth paste.
Heat a teaspoon of oil in a wok and fry the paste for seven minutes. Add tomato paste to the mix, combine it with the curry paste and let it cook for three minutes.
Pour in full-fat coconut milk and stir well to blend with the paste. Squeeze the juice of half a lemon into the curry and season with sea salt and sugar.
Allow the curry to bubble gently for five minutes. Drain the banana skins, ensuring to squeeze out any excess liquid, and cut them into pieces slightly smaller than bite-sized.
Add these skins to the pan and allow to simmer for an additional 10 minutes, or until the sauce has thickened and the banana skins are tender.
Add the cauliflower florets and leaves to the pan and continue cooking until they’re thoroughly heated. Taste the curry to check the seasoning, then garnish with chopped coriander leaves.