Mashed Plantains with Pulled Pork - Sweet and Salty DELICIOUSNESS

So once upon a time I worked in a school with a large Dominican population where we ate plantains on everything- even on sandwiches ("Miss you never had a plantano pork sandwich??"- as if this is so wild that I had never thought of it). We also put hot sauce on everything including pizza which I have taken with me for life. And that's the story of how I fell in love with plantains and hot sauce (I'm sorry the kids would kill me- plantanos).

Anyway, plantains are the best because they taste good with so many things and you can use ripe plantains for some recipes and unripe for others. This week Giant had 5 plantains for $2 so needless to say we are eating plantains everyday. Taking the idea of a plantano-pork sandwich, I came up with this incredibly delicious meal that, even though the bf complained watching it ("this is going to be gross! smashed bananas? ew sick it looks like you're making mashed potatoes with coconut milk! why do they even call this milk? meat and bananas? I mean I'll try it but"), he LOVED it and ate it for 2 meals the next day.

Also this recipe takes about 5% effort. So easy. 

Servings: 5
Prep Time: 10 mins
Cook Time: 6 hours (crockpot style)

Ingredients

• 1 lb pork loin ($5.00)
• 1 14 oz can natural reduced sodium beef broth ($1.50)
• 1 medium yellow onion, sliced ($1.00)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp garlic salt
• 1 tsp onion salt
• 4 ripe (aka brown) plantains (Giant had 5 plantains for $2!!)
• 1 cup coconut milk ($1.00)
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 1 avocado, sliced ($1.00)

Put pork loin, beef broth, onion, garlic, garlic salt and onion salt in a crockpot on low for 6-8 hours. Once you are done cooking it, use two forks to shred the meat (this should be super easy as the meat will be super tender). Let it sit in the crockpot (crockpot turned off) for about an hour to cool and absorb the juices.

To open your plantains: Cut off both ends (the stem-like stuff), then slice down the middle and remove the peel from the middle out.

Slice your plantains into 1-inch-thick slices. Use about a teaspoon of olive oil or cocounut oil to lube a frying pan and cook the plantain slices for 3-4 minutes on each side, or until browned.

Combine the cooked plantain slices, coconut milk and cinnamon in a mixing bowl and smash together with a big-ish spoon until you get a mashed potato like consistency. Add more milk as needed to ease the smashing.

Scoop out a heaping spoonful of mashed plantains, top with the pork, and garnish with avocado. And of course, add hot sauce freely.

How freaking easy was that?

Pork loin might look like this in the store

or it might look like this