Mofongo
Fried green plantain pounded with garlic and crackling until dense, fragrant and savoury.
- Prep
- 20 min
- Cook
- 25 min
- Total
- 45 min
- Serves
- 4
- Difficulty
- Intermediate
- Course
- Main course
Ingredients
- Garlic cloves6
- Pork crackling100 g
- Olive oil60 ml
- Chicken broth100 ml
Preparation
- 1
Fry plantain chunks until tender and golden.
- 2
Pound garlic with oil and salt in a pilón.
- 3
Add the hot plantain and crackling, pounding to a coarse mash.
- 4
Moisten with warm broth and shape into domes.
Nutrition
Nutrition per serving · Calculated
- calories
- 428 kcal
- protein
- 9 g
- carbs
- 52 g
- fat
- 21 g
- fiber
- 4 g
- sugars
- 20 g
- sodium
- 540 mg
Plantain
Caribbean PantryThe everyday starch of the Caribbean table, changing character entirely with ripeness.
- Origin
- Southeast Asia, naturalised across the Caribbean from the 16th century
- Flavour
- Starchy and grassy when green, honeyed and caramel when ripe
- Calories / 100g
- 122 kcal
- Seasonality
- Year-round
The story behind this ingredient
Brought to the Antilles through the Atlantic trade routes, the plantain became the region's most democratic food: fried as tostones, boiled in soups, mashed into mofongo or fufu. Its ripeness is a language of its own — green for salt, yellow for sweet.
This ingredient means something to them
Ricardo Méndez
Cuba · Criollo cooking and mojo
“Sour orange is the first thing I smell when I think of home.”
Meet the chef
Isabela Rosario
Puerto Rico · Mofongo and sofrito
“A plantain tells you exactly what dish it wants to become.”
Meet the chefWant to go further?
You discovered the ingredient. Now learn how to master it.
The Plantain Lab
Green to black: six ripeness stages, six techniques, from tostones to mofongo.
- Sun, 11 Oct 2026, 14:00 · 150 min
- San Juan, Puerto Rico · In person · $60
