This Turkey Pastelon (Sweet Plantain Lasagna) is a crowd favorite with melty cheese, sweet plantains, and savory meat. Make it for your next potluck and wow your friends!
Recently, while visiting Christian in Gainesville, we ate dinner at a Latin restaurant downtown named Emiliano’s. It’s one of my favorite restaurants in Gainesville – they’ve got such a hodgepodge of hispanic cuisine, including Cuban, my very biased favorite. The two dishes I always order at Emiliano’s are the Ropa Vieja or the Pastelon. Their Pastelon is a little different, however. At least from the version I make at home. It’s a tower of shredded chicken, rice, plantains, and melted cheese, and it’s freaking delectable.
Over a year ago, I adapted this recipe from Skinnytaste (one of my favorite food blogs!). It was a major hit in my house at the time, and I’ve made it countless times since – still in love! To be frank, the recipe I adapted was relatively complicated, so I lazy’d it down a bit. You know me, folks.
Although this recipe is a bit laborious for a weeknight meal (weeknight meal defined, to me, as throw it together and eat), it is a great make ahead option. I would make a large batch of this on a Sunday, or even double the recipe and make two – one to feed the family at Sunday supper, and one to eat the rest of the week. Because, trust me, you’ll want it all week.
It’s such a delectable combination of sweet plantains, salty turkey, refreshing cilantro, acidic tomatoes, crunchy onions and peppers. If there was such thing as a party in your mouth, this Pastelon would be the main attraction. Just sayin’.
This is actually a repurpose of an old post – this recipe was originally shared here in April 2015! Let’s take a look at the old photos…
Still a household favorite!
If you’ve never tried plantains, I think this is a great recipe to start with. Some people are a little grossed out by the texture of cooked plantains, and while these are, of course, cooked, they are mixed in with so much texture and flavor, you wouldn’t even care about their texture. Note: I happen to love the texture of cooked plantains.
Alright, friends. Whip yourself up some Turkey Pastelon and flip on your favorite show. It’s time to relax and enjoy the Latin flavors!
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- [b]Turkey:[/b]
- 1.25 lb lean ground turkey
- 1 tomato, chopped
- 1/2 red onion, chopped
- 1/4 red, 1/4 yellow bell pepper, chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- Handful fresh cilantro
- 4 oz can tomato sauce
- Salt, to taste
- Pepper, to taste
- Cumin, to taste
- 3 bay leaves
- 2 tbsp capers
- [b]Pastelon:[/b]
- 3 ripe plantains, peeled and sliced lengthwise
- 1 large egg, beaten
- 2 large egg whites, beaten
- 2 tbsp skim milk
- 1 package Monterey Jack cheese
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease an 8×8 baking dish.
- Heat extra virgin olive oil over medium heat in a large saute pan. Add turkey and break up with a spatula.
- When turkey starts to cook, add onion, tomato, peppers, garlic, and cilantro. Combine well.
- Continue to break the meat up into smaller pieces.
- Add capers (with vinegar!), cumin, bay leaves, salt, pepper, tomato sauce and about 1/4 cup of water.
- Cover and simmer for about 10 minutes.
- Spray a small saute pan and heat to medium. Lay plantain slices on pan and cook for about 3 minutes on each side.
- After picadillo is finished cooking, spoon into baking dish.
- Top picadillo with a layer of shredded cheese.
- Add the plantain slices on top of the cheese.
- Beat together the eggs with the milk and add to pastelon mixture to keep things binded while baking.
- Top plantains with remainder of cheese and cover with foil.
- Bake for about 25 minutes.
- When cheese is completely melted, change oven setting to broil and broil for about 3-5 minutes. Keep an eye on it so it doesn’t burn! Remove when cheese starts to brown.
- Enjoy with an avocado salad and black beans!
Join the conversation:
What is your favorite casserole?
Easiest weeknight meal ever?
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Omg sweet plantain lasagna?! I LOVE this variation on the traditional!
Also love to see how far you’ve come in your photography too, you’re so talented Christina! Favorite weeknight meal is probably a frittata (or anything with eggs) or baked salmon with a mess of veggies on the side 
Aw thank you Marina!! You’re the second person to say frittata – I am a HUGE weeknight egg dinner lover. In fact Georgie and I had scrambled eggs for dinner last night haha #lazy
This looks absolutely incredible. Awesome spice combo + melty cheese + some veggies for good measure = yummm! Enchilada bakes are my favorite kind of casserole, and for easy weeknight dinners I love a simple veggie frittata or… pancakes. Because sometimes you just need breakfast twice. 😛
Haha pancakes, that reminds me of when I was little my mom would make us breakfast for dinner and at that age, that was the BEST NIGHT of the week lol! So good!!
i have never really cooked with plantains before although im addicted to chips!!!!
Really?! They are big in Cuban cuisine so I grew up with them – you should totally try them out they’re wonderful!
I love breakfast casseroles! Instant food coma that makes you want to go back to bed right after you eat it…LOL! I honestly cannot remember the last time that I had a casserole. This looks DELISH!
Hahah YES the best kind. This was actually the first time I’d had a casserole in a long time.
YUM – looks like the ultimate in gooey, melty tasty make ahead dishes. I would really want this even in summer except heating up my little apartment kitchen is a no no in July, so pinning it for autumn
You don’t use your oven at all in the Summer?! I wouldn’t survive bahah – hope you love it in Autumn 😀
I’m super intrigued by this recipe! I haven’t ventured into cooking with plantains but this looks so good I might have to start!
I grew up with plantains so I’m just a little obsessed 😀 ya gotta try ’em!! Thanks Laura! <3
I’ve never tried plantain before. I’m actually not even sure if we get it here in NZ. I’ll have to look out for it because I wanna give this recipe a go. My favourite easy weeknight recipe is this fried rice from Fit Foodie Finds…http://fitfoodiefinds.com/2016/02/healthy-vegetarian-fried-rice/
Oh no!! It’s so good. It’s sweet and wonderful when combined with savory flavors. I hope you get to try one one day! That fried rice sounds great!!
Wow, I’ve never had a plantain lasagna, and I love plantains, so this looks like a really good dinner option for next week! Bookmarking to share. I think your pictures from 2015 looked really good, and these ones are just super gorgeous.