I’ve been admiring the creativity of the bloggers who follow the Paleo Autoimmune protocol diet (commonly called AIP).

This diet has all the restriction of Paleo but also removes eggs, dairy, nuts and seeds, tomatoes, white potatoes, eggplant, peppers and cocoa.

When you have this many restrictions you have to get really creative to stave off boredom and feelings of deprivation.

The AIP community has popularized exotic veggies and fruit like yuca and plantains, creating crackers, tortillas and empanadas out of them.

I really love plantains. And have learned so much about them from the AIP community. I discovered that you can cook with the green ones as well as the ripe yellow and brown ones. The green ones are not sweet and can replace potatoes when making hash or savory chips.

A plantain display at a local Latin grocery from green to extra ripe.

Sweet plantains (with yellow or brown skin) are amazing for breakfast simply sliced and fried in coconut oil or butter.

I had them for breakfast yesterday, sauteed with oxtail meat and onions. Yum.

But when I got up this morning I wanted something different but just as easy, so I decided to experiment.

I pureed raw plantains. Then I fried bacon in a pan and mixed everything together (bacon fat included).

This was the result. Perfect waffles.

They weren’t very crispy, but they did stiffen as they cooled. And they were very wrappable, like thick tortillas. I wrapped one around some lamb sausage topped with homemade persimmon cranberry sauce.

For a sweet breakfast you can melt butter, sprinkle cinnamon and add a dollop of  Greek yogurt or coconut cream.

And if you want to leave out the bacon and bacon fat  just add a melted tablespoon of coconut oil so they cook well and don’t stick.

It’s so ironic that I bought my first waffle iron after I went Paleo but it’s the most convenient cooking appliance I own (after my slow cooker). My grain free waffles always come out perfectly cooked and cook quickly with minimum supervision.

The recipe below makes 3 smallish waffles. Double or triple the recipe to make more.

Ingredients

1.5 ripe plantains (skin is brown)

1 larger rasher of bacon, sliced into thin strips

oil of choice for greasing the waffle iron

A bit of love (had to throw that in because the ingredient list was so short)

How to

Peel the plantains, slice them and throw them in the food processor.

Process until you get a puree the consistency of baby food.

Slice your bacon into thin strips and fry until cooked. Add the bacon meat and fat to the plantain puree.

Warm up your waffle iron and grease it with oil before each waffle.

I divided the batter into 3 parts and poured in a third at a time to make 3 waffles.

Because the batter is a bit thick I spread it around the waffle iron with the back of a spoon so it would cook evenly.

After it was done cooking (the green light went on!) the waffle was still too soft to remove.

I unplugged the waffle iron and let it sit there was another 30 seconds to a minute and then removed it by sandwiching it between my fingers and a spoon.

I transferred it to a plate to cool and stiffen up slightly.

Repeat these steps until all the batter is used up.

Top with sausage or fruit and eat with a fork and knife or roll it up burrito or taco style to eat with your fingers (more fun!)

Enjoy this delicious, naturally sweetened waffle simplicity!