
Tostones: The Perfect Plantain Bite
Enjoy our easy guide on how to make this classic, crispy, and crave-able recipe for tostones.
By: Familia Kitchen | @familiakitchencook
My favorite way to eat plátanos is tostones: the (try not to) burn-your-tongue, golden-brown plantain bites. So super-crispy and salty good. They are made from young, bright-green plantains. Fry them twice in vegetable oil, add a dash of salt and adobo, and you’re in tostón heaven.
We love plátanos for so many good reasons. Let us count the ways: They’re delicious. They’re filling. They keep forever. They're inexpensive. They’re easy to cook. They don't need refrigeration. They’re good for you: with lots of fiber; vitamins: A, C and B-6; and magnesium and potassium. They can be eaten alone as a side and cooked in stews—and even served as dessert. Plantains truly are la comida perfecta.
~ How to Buy and Peel a Platáno ~
When buying plantains for tostones, go for the greenest you can find. If they are hinting at turning yellow you can use them, but they are not ideal, tbh. If they are fully yellow, don’t buy them or just make maduros instead. They will likely be too sweet for tostones. Fully black? No go. They’re too dulce.
To peel your plátano, slice a thin wheel off the top and the bottom green skin. Make a shallow slice vertically, along its full length: top to bottom. Peel! If you are lucky, the skin will come off easily. If it doesn’t, as sometimes happens to all of us (it’s truly luck of the draw, like peeling an egg)—and the hard skin doesn’t come off—you might need to use a peeler, like you would with a potato.
Just go ahead and scrape it off.
Next: slice your naked plátano into 2/3-inch thick rounds, with straight edges. Don't go thinner than this. Skinny plantain chunks will dry out when fried and lose their crispy-on-the-outside, molten-on-the-inside flavor.
About Familia Kitchen
Familia Kitchen is on a mission to collect, curate and celebrate our traditional Latinx culinary heritage at its most authentic and delicious—one favorite family recipe at a time. Plant-based cooks should check out our Veronica’s Vegan Pozole Verde and Dairy-Free Flan de Calabaza. These tostones recipe was submitted by of our go-to Abuela Cooking 101 and criollo homecook Michelle Ezratty Murphy of @bowlandapron, who grew up in Puerto Rico with Familia Kitchen founder Kim Caviness.
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