Banana Blossom substitute

Best substitute

Canned or jarred banana blossom in brine

Use the same amount drained weight for fresh banana heart as the banana blossom you are replacing

Best for banana blossom fish and chips

Close match

The same ingredient, already trimmed, blanched and packed in brine, and stocked in most Asian shops and increasingly in UK supermarkets thanks to the vegan fish and chips boom.

Other banana blossom substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Artichoke hearts (canned or jarred, in water not oil)
Different taste
Use the same amount by drained weight
The best supermarket swap for the vegan fish role, because artichoke hearts pull apart into the same soft flaky layers when you press them, which is the whole illusion.
What changes
Best for
battered vegan fish and chips, vegan fish tacos and fishcakes, salads, pies and bakes
The obvious difference is flavour: artichoke tastes distinctly of artichoke, green and faintly sweet, where banana blossom tastes of very little. It is also softer, so chill the pieces in the fridge before battering and fry hot and fast at around 180C so they hold their shape. Lay a small piece of nori against each one before dipping if you want the sea flavour banana blossom recipes usually get from seaweed anyway.
3Hearts of palm
Different taste
Use the same amount by drained weight
Pale, tender and made of concentric layers that shred into short flakes, which makes it the closest match for the look and mouthfeel of cooked banana heart.
What changes
Best for
kilawin na puso and other cold vinegar dishes, kare-kare, vegan crab or fish cakes, salads and slaws
Hearts of palm are silkier and cleaner tasting than banana blossom, with a mild brine-sweetness and none of the tannic edge, so a kilawin made with it tastes brighter and less rustic. They break into shorter flakes than the long fibrous strands of a banana heart, and they soften quickly, so add them near the end of a stew rather than at the start.
4Young green jackfruit in brine or water (not syrup)
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount by drained weight
The other big vegan shredding ingredient, and a good one here because it is genuinely neutral in flavour, which is the one thing banana blossom really is.
What changes
Best for
vegan fish and chips, stews and curries, adobo-style braises, fillings and tacos
Jackfruit shreds into longer, stringier, more meat-like threads than banana blossom's short flakes, so battered pieces look and chew more like pulled fish than a fillet. It is also faintly sweet and takes salt slowly, so season it more assertively and give it ten minutes in the pan before you use it. Be certain the can says young, green, in brine or water; jackfruit in syrup is a dessert fruit and completely wrong here.
5Shredded cabbage core and inner leaves
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount by volume, shredded fine and salted for 10 minutes
The practical Filipino kitchen answer when there is no puso in the market: it supplies the bulk, the pale colour and something to chew on in a kare-kare or a kilawin.
What changes
Best for
kare-kare, kilawin and cold vinegar salads, vegetable stews, pancit style dishes
Cabbage is crunchier, sweeter and completely lacking the astringency banana blossom brings, so the dish tastes fresher and simpler. Salting the shreds for ten minutes and squeezing them out gets the texture closer to cooked blossom and stops them watering down the sauce. Use the dense core rather than the leafy outer parts, since the core holds its bite.
6Leaving it out of kare-kare
Different texture
Omit; add extra long beans, bok choy or eggplant to make up the volume
The honest answer for the dish where banana heart is one vegetable among several rather than the star.
What changes
Best for
kare-kare, pinakbet style vegetable stews, soups
Kare-kare is carried by its peanut sauce, oxtail and bagoong, and plenty of good versions never include banana heart at all. The dish comes out slightly less textured and a little sweeter without the blossom's tannic edge. This does not transfer to vegan banana blossom fish, where the blossom is the fish, so use artichoke hearts there instead.

What is Banana Blossom?

Banana Blossom is Banana blossom, also called banana heart, banana flower or puso ng saging, is the tight purple flower bud of the banana plant, whose pale inner core is eaten for its fibrous, layered, artichoke-like texture rather than for any strong flavour of its own.

Cooking tips

Fresh banana blossom oxidises within a minute or two of cutting and the sap stains skin, boards and clothes brown. Have a bowl of water with a splash of vinegar or the juice of a lemon ready, and drop each trimmed piece straight in as you work. Rubbing a little oil on your hands first makes cleanup much easier.
Peel away and discard the tough purple outer bracts and the rows of small yellow florets inside them, along with the stiff thread-like style running through each floret, which stays unpleasantly firm no matter how long you cook it. What you want is the tender pale heart at the centre plus the youngest inner bracts.
The bitterness lives in the sap. Massage the shredded heart with a teaspoon of salt, leave it ten minutes, then squeeze hard and rinse, or blanch it for three to five minutes in salted water with a splash of vinegar. Skip this only if you actively want the astringency, which some kilawin recipes do.
For anything battered, the single biggest failure is moisture. Canned banana blossom, artichoke hearts and jackfruit all come out of the tin soaked, and wet surfaces make batter slide off and spit in the oil. Squeeze, blot, then dust with a thin layer of dry flour or cornflour before the wet batter goes on.
Banana blossom contributes texture and a mild bitterness, not salt, fat or umami. That is why every good recipe using it leans hard on something savoury alongside, whether that is bagoong in kare-kare, nori and caper brine in vegan fish, or vinegar and chilli in kilawin. If your substitute tastes bland, the fix is seasoning, not a different vegetable.

Frequently asked questions

Can I just leave banana blossom out?

It depends entirely on which dish you are making. In kare-kare, pinakbet or a mixed vegetable stew, yes, and you will barely notice beyond a little less texture, so add extra long beans or bok choy to fill the pot. In vegan banana blossom fish and chips or kilawin na puso, the blossom is the whole dish, and leaving it out means you have nothing to batter, so use artichoke hearts or hearts of palm instead.

What does banana blossom taste like, and does it taste of banana?

It does not taste of banana at all. Cooked banana blossom is very mild, faintly bitter and slightly tannic, with a distant resemblance to artichoke, and its appeal is the fibrous flaking texture. This is exactly why it works as a vegan fish substitute: it brings the flake and lets the batter, nori and seasoning supply the flavour.

Is canned banana blossom as good as fresh?

For most purposes it is better, and it is what almost all vegan fish recipes assume. Canned blossom is already trimmed of the fiddly florets and blanched of most of its bitterness, saving twenty minutes of messy prep. The one drawback is that it arrives waterlogged, so drain, squeeze and blot it thoroughly before battering. Fresh has more character and more bite, which suits kilawin.

Which substitute is best for vegan fish and chips specifically?

Artichoke hearts, packed in water rather than oil, drained and squeezed dry. They flake in layers the way banana blossom does, they hold together in a batter if you chill them first, and they are in every supermarket. Add a small square of nori against each piece before battering for the sea flavour, and season the batter with a little caper brine or vinegar. Young green jackfruit is second best and gives a stringier, more pulled-fish result.

Do I need to cook banana blossom before using it?

Fresh, yes. Blanch or simmer the trimmed heart for three to five minutes in salted water with a splash of vinegar, both to soften the fibres and to remove the sap's bitterness. Canned blossom is already cooked and only needs draining and drying. In kilawin, where the pieces are dressed raw in vinegar, a quick blanch first still gives a much better texture than going in completely raw.

Related substitutes

More vegetables & aromatics substitutes

Banana Blossom substitute

Other banana blossom substitutes

2Artichoke hearts (canned or jarred, in water not oil)

3Hearts of palm

4Young green jackfruit in brine or water (not syrup)

5Shredded cabbage core and inner leaves

6Leaving it out of kare-kare