Cuban Pastelon

Bringing you another Cuban soul food dish in another @food.health.fit and @chef.sol collaboration!

No matter how clean your plant-based diet, it's important, almost essential, to hit that comfort food from time to time to prevent burning out.  It's also essential to learn how to keep your meals vegan while you do this, to keep your body on track and maintain your progress.  This is something that you will be able to relate to and understand once you have some experience with plant-based diets.  Eating a meat-based dish after being vegan for a while can be a real setback for your newly improved digestion tract.  However, looking to meat substitutes can be a dramatically different experience, one that can offer little consequence if you are in good health.  I'm 100% confident that I could fool a lot of meat eaters with this dish by serving it to them and not mentioning the meat substitute, it's that good.

The plantain in this dish makes it hit that level of food porn that make you go "ooouuuhhh," that dance of sweet and savory that drives your taste buds wild.  With that said, I know depending on your geographic location and the time of the year ripe plantains can be hard to come by.  This dish is still delicious without the plantains, making it more of a Cuban inspired shepherd's pie.

Being of Carribean upbringing, I almost always seem to find the plantains.  Once you've learned what a properly ripened plantain looks like and you get a hand for preparing them, they are so good that you'll develop an eye for them and scavenge whatever your area has to offer.  If it's a fruit that you don't know much about yet, I recommend putting some more time into learning about them.  Take my word for it!

This recipe uses ripe plantains which should be yellow with plenty of black spots.  A perfect one should be slightly soft to the touch, and the skin will start to thin.  If you've found some plantains that aren't quite at peak ripeness, try storing them in a brown paper bag for a few days and that can help them ripen considerably!  (yes it must be a brown paper bag, no plastic folks!) 

*MAJOR key:  The ground "beef" in this recipe also goes very well in burritos!  Make this sauce and then add all of your favorite toppings, wrap into burrito.*

Ingredients

8x8 baking dish

Potatoes:

• 4 large russet potatoes skin peeled cut into cubes
• *Retain 1/2 cup of the cooked potato water*
• 1 Tbsp garlic powder 
• 1/2 cup Earth Balance butter

Plantains:

• 2 very ripe plantains, cut in half and then sliced into strips
• 2 Tbsp safflower oil, for frying

Sauce:

• Safflower oil
• 1/2 large yellow onion or 1 small onion, diced
• 1 green or red pepper, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled and diced
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 bag of Gardien beefless ground crumbles
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1/2 Tbsp orange juice
• 1/2 Tbsp lemon juice
• 1 1/2 Tbsp cumin
• 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 can organic tomato sauce 
• 1/2 cup water 
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1/4 cup fresh cilantro

Directions

Potato Layer: 

1. Chop the potatoes into cubes, place them into a pot and cover with water and add 1 1/2 tsp salt to water, boil until fork tender. (Move on to starting the sauce while the potatoes are cooking.
2. Drain water saving 1/2 cup of cooked potato water. 
3. Place potatoes in a large bowl with 1/2 cup cooked potato water, 
4. earth balance butter, and garlic powder.
5. Mash well and set aside.

Beef-Free Crumbles (Sauce):

1. Preheat a large skillet on medium heat 
2. Add 2 Tbsp of safflower oil, then sauté onions, peppers, garlic and bay leaf for about 2 minutes.
3. Add beef free crumbles, salt, pepper and continue to cook
4. Add orange & lemon juice, cumin, vinegar. Tips: Squeeze some fresh orange juice into the pot and eat the rest while cooking for a snack.  Always store fresh lemons in the crisper of your refrigerator.  When you need some lemon juice, slice them in half and squeeze as much as you need.  Store in the refrigerator in zip lock sandwich bags.  They store for quite a long time and you will use them faster then they go bad if you are often cooking.  Lastly, for this step I don't usually measure I just squeeze into the pot, give it a shot!
5. Finally add tomato sauce, water, and oregano.  Simmer on low until tomato sauce and water thickens.
6. lastly add chopped cilantro over the top. Set aside.

Sweet ripe plantains:

1. Preheat a large skillet on medium heat.  (You may need to cook this in two batches)
2. Add 2 Tbsp safflower oil
3. Add plantains, do not overlap them.
4. Cook for about 1 min then turn and cook for another minute. Remove plantains and place on a plate with a paper towel.  Pat the top dry with a paper towel to remove excess oil.  Set aside.

Assembly

1. Preheat oven to 375F.
2. In a a 8x8 square or round baking dish start placing a layer of plantain covering the bottom.
3. Next arrange a layer of beef free crumbles so as to cover the plantains evenly, Add a 1/2 inch layer of mashed potatoes.
4. Place in oven and bake for 10 minutes.
5. Lastly broil on high for 5 minutes until the top is golden brown. (optional)

Serve

Topping:

Slice fresh radishes, tomatoes, onion & avocado.  Toss them in mojo marinade sauce and throw on top of pastelon when ready to eat. - Check the hispanic section in your grocery store for mojo marinade.

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