Benefits of Banana Plant

Benefits of Banana Plant 

Dear friends,

Today I would like to share with you some immense benefits of Banana plant flower,leaves and stem.

We all agree that Banana fruit has huge health benefits but did you know mother nature has blessed us with this plant whose not only the fruits but also the leaves,stem and Banana flower (rather an Inflorescence )has various uses.

In West Bengal ( Eastern India ) almost all household  has this Banana plant growing in their garden.I am also one of them.I used to play around the plant in my childhood days and waiting for the fruit to ripe. Sometimes I would hear my grandma shouting aloud to the bunch of Apes who came in the silent afternoon to eat the bananas when all of us took a nap after eating a huge platter of Rice:).

Gone are those days now but they are still alive in my memories.

Back to the topic :).

1. Banana leaves are widely used in India to serve food.They are washed and cleaned properly and food is served on them.Its also environment friendly as you can throw away the banana leaf after eating on it and our good Decomposers will quickly start their job and decompose them back into the soil.I myself  miss eating on them now.The ones I get in the supermarket now are not that fresh or have incision on them .

2. The Banana flower is also edible and has immense health benefits. In West Bengal ( India ) we either make a gravy dish or make banana flower chops or fritters /sometimes the white pointed inside part of the banana flower is boiled and eaten with boiled mashed potato.Someday I will post the recipes in my veg blog and non veg blog as it can be cooked also with prawn or shrimp :).It is also used in many Asian cuisine as far as I know.It has  some specific cooking process.

3. Opening and cleansing the Banana flower is a tedious task but I have found many Asian shops selling canned banana flowers .

4. The health benefits of Banana flower is immense its a storehouse of Important Vitamins and minerals including Vit A, C and E and Potassium and Magnesium.

5. The Banana stem ( In West Bengal it is called Thoor )is also edible and has many health benefits.In my household it was cut into small pieces and stir fried  with Pumpkin with little turmeric and pinch of sugar along with salt.I have seen them once in an Indian store.It is also has  some specific cooking process. It has a high amount of Iron and Vitamin.Iron is very important for our body as you may know Iron is required for the synthesis of Haemoglobin an important component of Blood which has 2 parts haeme the iron containing part and globin the protein containing part.

6. Friends, do not throw away the raw(green ) banana peel. It also has good health benefits. I have a very easy recipe for it. I will soon upload it in my veg recipes.

In short try to make use of this plant as much as you can in your diet . 

Your comments and suggestions are valuable for me :).

For recipe of Raw Banana click the link below :-

Kacha Kolar Kofta Curry recipe or Raw Banana Kofta Recipe