The main ways of preparing fresh bananas for consumption are boiling or steaming, roasting or baking and frying. Boiling followed by pounding into "fufu" is also widely adopted in certain areas of the tropics.

1 Boiling or steaming

Plantains and bananas are often prepared simply by boiling in water, either in their peel or after peeling, and either ripe or unripe; if unripe, the fruit is scraped thoroughly after peeling to remove all traces of fibrous material. The boiled fruit is eaten alone or more usually accompanied by a sauce. This preparation technique is widely used in West Africa.

2 Roasting or baking.

Unpeeled or peeled fruit, either ripe or unripe, is roasted simply by placing in the ashes of a fire or in an oven. This method is widely used in West Africa, East Africa and the South Pacific islands. For example, ripe plantains are placed unpeeled in an oven and when partly brown and tender, removed and peeled, then replaced in the oven and roasted evenly.

3 Frying.

Ripe or unripe plantains or bananas are often peeled, sliced and cooked in oil, particularly in West Africa and in parts of South America and the West Indies. Similar products are also made in East Africa. Typically, ripe plantains are peeled, cut into slices or split lengthways, and fried in palm oil or with groundnut oil, the pieces being served either hot with a sauce or with fried eggs, or cold as a snack.

4 Pounding.

Pounding is a process, used particularly in West Africa, for preparing most perishable staple food crops including plantains, cassava, yams and cocoyams to obtain a paste or dough known as "fufu" (also spelled "foofoo", "foutou", "foufou"). The plantains are peeled or boiled and peeled after boiling and pounded in a wooden mortar, the resulting paste normally being eaten with soup or a spiced sauce of meat and vegetables, but sometimes after wrapping in leaves and steaming.