Fried Green Bananas or Plantains Recipe- Paleo, Vegan, Easy and Delicious

Occasionally when I lived in the US as a kid, my mom would come home with plantains, and we'd make fried green plantains. They were soft and sweet and delicious, but locally plantains are a fortune, when I can even find them, so fried green plantains are out.
Fortunately, fried green bananas taste very similarly, and can be made very cheaply.
I tend to buy bananas from the reduced rack, because even in season, their price rarely seems to get down very low, and especially considering the fact that a large percentage of the banana gets thrown away, making it cost even more per pound than it would appear at first. Buying from the reduced rack allows me to pay as little as possible for bananas, and most of the time reduced rack bananas are brown, mushy, and overripe, which work amazingly in dessert recipes and either eliminate completely or drastically reduce the need for sweeteners in recipes.
Sometimes, though, the bananas I buy cheaply are green, and aren't just being sold at the regular price, left to ripen, because they got nicked or similar, and therefore they won't necessarily ripen completely. When this happens, that's almost better, because green bananas can be made in recipes that call for green plantains, such as fried green plantains or bananas.

Fried green bananas, depending on the exact stage of ripeness, can either be mildly sweet or extremely sweet pr anywhere in between. Once fried, you can decide if you want to enhance the sweetness, by adding some sweetener- we added white sugar growing up but any sweetener works, healthier or not- or salt, or leaving as is. I tend to leave them plain, but when I do add, it generally is salt.
I don't just fry green bananas. If I have yellow or brown bananas that I got that have one end exposed and possibly even moldy, I cut off the exposed gross part, but then don't feel comfortable eating it raw- I like it cooked to kill any possible contaminants. No matter the stage of ripeness, frying a banana transforms it from something meh into something amazing. The more unripe a banana, though, the more firm and easy to eat it will be. But fried overripe bananas, the sugar caramelizes, and it becomes a treat that is out of this world.

Fried green bananas work as a great paleo and grain free carb and are a wonderful treat. I highly recommend this. I do feel a bit silly posting a recipe this simple on my blog, but what is simple and easy for one person might be something another person may not have considered, so....

Fried Green Bananas or Plantains Recipe- Paleo, Vegan, Easy and Delicious

Ingredients:

Bananas or plantains, green or yellowing or yellow or even brown

Oil of choice (ideally not olive, since its flavor is very dominant)

Salt (optional)

Sweetener of choice (optional)

Instructions:

1. Carefully peel your bananas. When fully green it isn't so easy to do this, so you may find that you need to cut off the peel with a knife if it doesn't separate from the flesh easily.

2. Cut up your bananas. Usually when I'm trying to be time efficient, I just halve the bananas lengthwise, but other times I cut it into slices.

3. Heat up a frying pan with oil, and when hot, place all the banana pieces inside the pan, in one layer, not overlapping at all. Do this carefully, since once it is placed in the pan it changes texture and can't be moved until it is completely solidly cooked on each side. 

4. When your banana or plantain slices look fully cooked, flip them over and let them cook on the other side as well.

5. Top with sweetener or salt as desired. Enjoy hot!

Ever have fried green bananas or plantains? Did you enjoy them? Ever cook anything with green bananas? If so, what? Does this look like a recipe you'd try?