I’m excited to show you another dessert recipe that’s gluten-free and very quick to put together. The bonus? This air fryer recipe of classic Thai-inspired fried bananas, restaurant dessert, means no deep-frying oil clean-up. Let me show you how to make this.
The Ingredients
You’ll see here I have greenish-yellow bananas. In Thailand, they use a variety of starchy bananas called namwa. Here I’m substituting for slightly underripe regular banana. You could also try this recipe with plantains too! Just as long as they’re sliced into small chunks. The shredded coconut is just the regular shredded coconut that you can find in the pantry aisle of your grocery store, not the big flakes. The maple sugar is my Canadian twist but the flavour pairs beautifully with the cooked banana. Substitute it with regular sugar. Rice flour is used here to give it a slightly chewy yet crisp and light texture. You can try this recipe too with half corn starch and half all-purpose flour. To serve, garnish with sesame seeds, a drizzle of honey, and a scoop of your vanilla ice cream of choice. You’ll be transported back to your favourite Thai restaurant.
small green-yellowish bananas
finely shredded coconut
rice flour
maple sugar (get the recipe here)
salt
baking powder
sesame seeds for garnish
honey for serving
vanilla ice cream (optional)
Whisking Dry Ingredients
The dry ingredients come together like any other baked good. Simply whisk most of the ingredients together – rice flour, maple sugar, salt, and baking powder. Then you can prep your bananas by peeling them, cutting them down the middle length-wise, and then cutting them into 2″ chunks. Set the bananas aside.
Making the Batter
When your dried ingredients are fully mixed, add in coconut and water. The thickness of the batter may take a try or two with one piece of banana in the air fryer. Stir the batter until it comes together and then let it sit for 5 minutes before you re-stir it and coat the bananas with it.
Frying
Preheat the air fryer and then coat the banana pieces. Spray your air fryer basket with cooking oil and lay the bananas on, leaving about 1/2″ around each piece. You may need to do this in more than one batch. Cook them until crisp and then serve them with the garnishes and ice cream!
Thai-Inspired Fried Bananas
gluten free, paleo options, diary free | serves 4
Prep Time 10 mins
Cook Time 10 mins
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: Thai
Equipment
Air Fryer
cooking spray
Ingredients
4 small bananas greenish-yellow
¾ cup rice flour (or half cassava and half arrowroot flour)
2 tbsp maple sugar (get the recipe here)
½ tsp salt
½ tsp baking powder
⅓ cup finely shredded unsweetened coconut
¼ + 1 tbsp cup water plus more to thin if needed
Optional When Serving
4 scoops coconut vanilla ice cream
honey to garnish
toasted sesame seeds to garnish
Instructions
Whisk the rice flour, maple sugar, salt, and baking powder together in a medium mixing bowl. Set aside.
Peel the bananas. Slice them down the middle length-wise and then cut into 2" pieces. Set aside.
Whisk in shredded coconut and water. Let batter sit for 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, preheat the air fryer to 330F
Coat one piece of banana in the batter. The batter should be the consistency of American pancake batter. If you want it a bit lighter, thin the batter out with one extra tablespoon of water.
Put half of the bananas in the batter. Before placing them in the air fryer, spray the basket with cooking spray. Take the banana pieces out of the batter one at a time letting the extra batter drip off. Place in the air fryer basket.
If you want to see how the batter consistency is to your liking, fry this as a test banana, 5 minutes on one side and 5 minutes on the other. If the banana batter seems too cakey and firm, add an extra tablespoon of water into the batter.
Repeat dipping the bananas pieces in batter, letting the excess drip off, and place them on a prepared air fryer basket sprayed with cooking oil. Spray the tops of the bananas with more cooking oil and fry for 5 minutes on one side and 5 minutes on the other.
Serve hot with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and drizzled with honey. Garnish with sesame seeds.
