Culinary Considerations

Banana leaves are staples in Southeast Asian, Indian and African cooking. The leaves are not eaten by humans and are used exclusively as aromatic food wrappers. The leaf adds a green tea like scent to food during the cooking whether you use them to wrap food for steaming, grilling or baking. You can buy fresh banana leaves in some Asian markets and freeze them for later use. For some recipes the leaves need to be steamed prior to grilling or baking.