At home or abroad porridge is heavily featured on Jamaican breakfast menus. Cornmeal, oatmeal, peanut, banana porridge or hominy we love them all. For some a bowl or mug of this warm sweet nutritious goodness with a couple slices of buttered hardough bread or a few Excelsior hard crackers is all it takes to get through the morning. For others, porridge is the starter ‘a likkle something to clear your stomach’ before a hearty mid-morning meal.
Green bananas are used by Caribbean cooks to make dumplings, porridge, chips or boiled with other foods. Grating green bananas to make porridge is just of the many ways we use this staple Caribbean food. Making this Jamaican favorite is just as easy as making most other porridge. The hardest past is peeling and grating the green bananas. If you are not a fan of mutilated fingers or if you don’t own a grater a food processor makes a perfect substitute.
Still don’t want all that hassle?
Try using green banana flour. You will often find it prepackaged in Indian, Asian and African grocery stores.
When making green banana porridge mix the grated bananas with flour or oatmeal before adding to the water. this will allow the water to thicken as it begins to boil and the bananas begin to cook. To ensure a lump-free porridge use a wooden spoon or a whisk to stir the porridge while it cooks.
Porridge can be sweetened a variety of ways. You can use any combination of milk and sugar, (condensed, evaporated, coconut, white brown, etc.) 
Green Banana Porridge
- 2 green bananas (peeled and grated)
- ½ C. oatmeal (substitute ¼ cup of all purpose flour for oatmeal)
- 2 C. water
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 C milk (use whole, coconut, plant-based or condensed milk or any combination of)
- Sugar to taste (omit sugar if using condensed milk)
- 1 tsp vanilla
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp ground nutmeg
The recipe calls for grated bananas. For a smoother texture and richer flavor blend all the ingredients together and then simmer
Add water to a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add salt to water. In a bowl, mix banana with oatmeal or flour. Stir banana mixture into warm water. Continue stirring until mixture thickens and porridge begins to boil. Reduce heat to med-low. Cover the pot and let the porridge simmer for about 10 minutes. Stir frequently while cooking. After 10 minutes stir in the remaining ingredients. Simmer for an additional 5 minutes. Watch the pot carefully because the milk may cause the porridge to boil over. After 5 minutes turn off the stove and stir. Serve porridge while hot.
If you’d rather skip the grating and measuring, there are several varieties of banana porridge available in Caribbean grocery stores and online from retailers like Grace Foods and Amazon.com
If you’d rather skip the grating and measuring, there are several varieties of banana porridge available in Caribbean grocery stores and online from retailers like Grace Foods and Amazon.com