While I have never been a person to waste food, this year of lockdown has made me go even further and utilize the parts of fruits and vegetables which what one would normally consider as waste.  You can see some of my other recipes on this blog.

Of course, banana skin was not new to me as an ingredient because years ago I had tasted a skin sabji (stir fry) at a Jain friend’s place and I had absolutely loved it.

I also frequently use the skins of the cooking plantains either in sabji or chutney.

I got the idea of doing the same with ripe banana skins when I visited Chiguru Farm in March 2021. The plump, fresh, organic bananas with their thick, meaty skins seemed to be begging me not to discard them into the waste and instead make something palatable with them.

Thus was born the ripe skin chutney, which turned out to be a great hit among all the other visitors to the farm too.

So whenever I get my hands on some organic and naturally grown bananas with a meaty, thickish skin, I do not spare any part of it and mercilessly turn it into chutney 😀

I have made this chutney using different varieties. A couple of pictures are below.

The first picture is of the organic bananas I got from my visit to Chiguru Farm.

The second picture is of the bananas my friend gave me from her organic garden.

Banana skin chutney –

The recipe is similar to the other vegetable chutneys that we usually make. It is also a very forgiving and flexible recipe and one can add or remove or vary ingredients as per desire. There are no hard and fast rules here.

Recipe for Banana skin chutney –

Ingredients –

Banana skin – 150gm, from 5 ripe medium size bananas. Remove the stalk and base. Approx 1.5 cups chopped volume.

Mustard Oil – 2 tablespoon + 2 teaspoon (you can use any oil)
Mustard – 1/2 teaspoon
Jeera – 1/2 teaspoon
Hing – a pinch
Urad dal – 1 tablespoon/12gm
Channa dal – 1 tablespoon/12gm
Peanuts – 2 tablespoon/20gm
Dry red chilli – 5
Dry byadgi chilli – 5

Curry leaves – 1/3 cup/5gm
Garlic – 10 cloves chopped
Onion – 50gm/1 small chopped
Coconut grated – 1/2 cup/30gm

Jaggery – 20gm/2 tablespoon or to taste
Haldi powder – 1/2 teaspoon
Salt – 1 teaspoon or to taste
Lime juice – 2 tablespoon (or Tamarind small marble size)

Method –

Roughly chop the banana skin. Blanch in boiling water for 2-3 min OR fry in another 2 teaspoons of oil for 2-3 minutes and set aside.

Heat 2 tablespoons of mustard oil. Add mustard, jeera. When they splutter, add hing, urad, channa dal, peanuts, red chilli, byadgi chilli. Fry till the dals are brownish.

Add currypatta, garlic, onion and fry for 2-3 minutes. Add coconut and fry for a minute.

Add the blanched or fried skin and haldi and mix well. Turn off the heat and add the salt, jaggery, lime juice (or tamarind) Grind using water as little water as possible. It’s quite thick and sticky, so you may need to grind in instalments.

If you don’t mind a thinner chutney, then use as much water as you wish. You can grind as fine or as coarse as you wish.
Sometimes I use just half a cup but sometimes I use nearly 2 cups, depending on my preference. This chutney will stay good for 2-3 days in the fridge (maybe longer if you freeze it).

This is a very flexible recipe and you can vary the quantities of the ingredients as you wish and you can also add or remove ingredients as you wish.