Sticky and Spicy Pineapple and Banana with Cinnamon by Kalpna Woolf
This is a very quick and simple dessert. I love sticky bananas and this reminds me of banana fritters without the frying! A sweet treat without sugar but with healthy honey and cinnamon instead. The cinnamon adds natural sweetness with no extra calories and I find that honey doesn’t make me crave sugary things – it has a satisfying sweetness but adds a stickiness which makes the fruit all the more delicious!
Serves 4
Calories per serving: 181
Ingredients
2 bananas
5 tbsp lemon juice
½ pineapple, peeled and cored and cut into wedges (you will need 4–6 wedges per person)
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
3 tbsp runny honey
2 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
6 tbsp plain yogurt
8–10 fresh mint leaves
Method
Preheat the grill to high.
Peel the bananas and slice down the middle and then in half. Put the bananas in a bowl and mix in the lemon juice (this will stop them from going brown). Place the pineapple wedges in a separate bowl, then sprinkle the bananas with half the ground cinnamon and the pineapple with the other half.
Place the fruit (reserve the lemon juice from the bananas) on a foil-lined grill pan and cook for 2–3 minutes or until starting to colour. Quickly remove the fruit from the grill.
In a large non-stick sauté pan, gently heat the honey and lemon juice and, when warm, add the sesame seeds. Carefully add the pineapple and bananas and gently toss in the mixture. The fruit should be coated and when the honey begins to stick, take them out of the pan and serve immediately topped with the yogurt and mint leaves.
The featured recipe is from ‘Spice yourself Slim: Harness the power of super spices for well-being ad weight-loss’ by Kalpna Woolf, published by Pavilion Books. Photo credit to Clare Winfield