Guineos en Escabeche takes green bananas and turns them into a Puerto Rican side dish that’s pure flavor with a simple garlic vinaigrette.

Guineos en escabeche are wonderful when paired with a succulent meat like pernil or pork chops. They’re commonly also combined with mollejos (chicken gizzards).

What is escabeche?

Escabeche means marinade or pickle in Spanish. The marinade in this dish is similar to our yuca en escabeche recipe. It has a garlicky oil and vinegar dressing.

Many ingredients get the escabeche treatment – not just yuca or guineos. Pigeon peas, chicken and fish en escabeche are especially popular.

What are green bananas?

Green bananas are the same as yellow bananas, they just haven’t ripened yet. Since they aren’t ripe, they are not sweet, and they should be cooked before eating.

Green bananas are NOT the same as green plantains. Plantains are a different type of banana. They’re almost always cooked, even when ripe. Green plantains are used in dishes like tostones or mofongo, while yellow/black plantains make the perfect pastelón.

Latin and Asian markets are usually good resources for finding green bananas, but your regular grocery store should have them too when the banana shipment first arrives.

If you cannot find completely green bananas at the grocery store, you can try asking them to order un-gassed bananas. Gassing is a treatment commercial bananas receive which forces them ripen and turn yellow after harvest.

How to make guineos en escabeche

Once you have your green bananas, they need to be cooked. You can peel them first, but I like to cut off the ends and boil them right in their skins.

Green bananas don’t have much flavor in the same way a potato is plain. They’re tasty, but plain, and make great vehicles for soaking up different flavors. Salt the cooking water to start building flavor right away.

After that you’ll need to make the oil and vinegar dressing, along with sliced onion, garlic and bay leaf.

You’ll pour this infusion over the bananas along with some green olives for an extra pop of briny flavor. Sliced pimientos are optional, but I like the color they add.

Let it marinate for a few hours so the guineos can soak up the flavors. This dish can be served cold or at room temperature. Buen provecho!