Sweet Plantain and Spinach Pastelón

Original post from — karmafreecooking @ 5:07 pm

This is one of my favorite pastelónes ever!!! It’s sweet and savory all at the same time.

This pastelón is made with very ripe plantains… if you take a look at this picture, the plantain need to be like the one in the bottom or even with more spots than that. This will ensure the plantain is ripe indeed. The one on the middle is not fully ripe, even when it looks pretty and yellow.

SWEET PLANTAIN AND SPINACH PASTELON

1 sweet ripe plantain

1 cup (240 ml) frozen spinach

4 oz (120 ml) of cream cheese, at room temperature preferably

½ cup (125 ml) Parmesan Cheese, divided

1 Tbs. (15 ml) butter

Dash of milk, optional

Salt and freshly cracked black pepper

1. First off, we need to boil the plantain. So we cut off the ends, make a slit from one end to the other of the plantain and then cut into 4 pieces. Do not remove the skin. Drop them into a pot with salted water and let it boil covered for about 20 minutes.
2. In the meantime, defrost the spinach and squeeze out as much water as possible. Mix in with the cream cheese and season with salt and pepper.
3. When the plantain is cooked, drain and remove skin, placing the skinless pieces of cooked plantains in a bowl. Mash the plantains with the butter and ½ of the parmesan cheese. Add the milk to the plantain mash now, if using.

1. Pre-heat oven to 350° F (175C).
2. In a glass baking dish sprayed with canola oil, spread ½ the plantain mixture in the bottom. Layer the spinach/cream cheese mixture and finish off with the remainder of the plantain mash. Top the pastelón with the rest of the parmesan cheese to form a nice crust.
3. Bake in the oven for about 20-30 minutes, until the cheese on top creates a crust and the flavors meld together.
4. Leave in the oven for 15 minutes more to allow setting.