Recipe: Banana peel bacon
At Gys, we strive to have as little food waste as possible. We do this by using as much of our vegetable and fruit peels and other food waste leftovers, which are often labelled as "waste", in different ways. To illustrate, you can find brassica on our menu. Brassica is a salad that we make from leftover parts of vegetables. Think of the less pretty leaves of Brussels sprouts, the foliage of the cauliflower or the stem of broccoli. But we also reuse the peels of other products in other dishes, such as banana peels!
Gys and bananas!
And we love bananas at Gys… You can enjoy various shakes with banana as an ingredient plus we have banana bread on our menu. We even have a dessert dedicated entirely to this yellow ingredient. This dessert carries the name, you guessed it “BANANAS!”
Using bananas to prepare drinks and desserts also leads to the fact that we often have banana peels as leftovers at Gys. You can use banana peel for multiple other uses. For example, you can add banana peels as a fertiliser to your plants, you can use it as a care product for your skin or hair - or: you can cook with it! And that's what we do at Gys. We make “bacon” from our banana peels. So do you eat a lot of bananas at home and do you want to know how you can turn these peels into something delicious? Then read on:
What you need for banana peel bacon:
- Organic banana peels, as much as you have leftover (we use these at Gys. These have a lower ecological footprint and no synthetic chemicals are used for growing them)
- Oil that can reach a high temperature without burning (e.g. sunflower oil)
- One part of sugar (e.g. 100 grams)
- One part of water (e.g. 100 ml)
- Smoked salt/liquid smoke aroma if you have.
How to make banana peel bacon:
- Wash the skin of the bananas well under the tap (this is easiest if the fruit is still in the skin 😉)
- Cut the banana peel through the middle and cut off the top that attaches the banana to the bunch.
- Now cut the banana peel into small strips of half a centimetre wide.
- Grab a pan and heat the oil on high heat.
- When the oil smokes, add the banana peel. Don’t add too much at once, because then the oil cools back too quickly.
- Bake the banana peel until it gets a beautiful color. This will take a few minutes.
- Put the banana in a sieve over a container to separate the banana from the oil.
- Repeat this process until you have fried all the banana peels.
- Clean the pan and add sugar and water to make sugar syrup. You do this by using an equal part of sugar and an equal part of water.
- Let the sugar melt in the water, you can stir this if you want. When the sugar has melted, add the banana peel.
- Bake the banana peel in the sugar syrup for approximately ten minutes.
- Then remove the banana peel from the sugar syrup. Sprinkle a little smoked salt or liquid smoke (from the toko) here. Do this to taste, so be careful and do not add too much at once!
- If you want, you can reduce the remaining sugar syrup even further in the pan. If you do this, the result is a delicious banana caramel sauce!
- And finished! The banana peel bacon is very tasty in savoury dishes as a sweet touch. Obviously, it is of course also very tasty served with vanilla ice cream or fried banana!
Did you make this dish? Please let us know on Instagram or by email. Our chefs really like hearing this!
A little bit more about food waste
We strive hard at Gys to keep food waste to a minimum. For example, we use residual products as much as we can and we pay close attention to the portions of the dishes we serve. Completely combating food waste remains a challenge. For example, guests sometimes leave some food leftovers on their plates or there are parts of fruit and vegetables that we really can't do anything with. Think of the top of an eggplant or the sprig of cherry tomatoes. These parts end up in special waste bins from the Clique. These bins are collected several times a week and all the leftovers are used by the Clique for various purposes. Be sure to check out their site if you're curious!
Are you curious about what else we do at Gys to reduce food waste? Pop by!