The Philippines is a well-known country with many plantations of different fruits and plants, especially plantains.
Banana, particularly the Saba, is an ingredient widely used in different cuisines and recipes all over the country because of its unique and delicate taste.
It has a very interesting taste and does not like the taste of other plantains. It is a type of plantain that could serve as ripe, unripe, and cooked. It could also eat raw when it is ripe.
It is an ingredient that is versatile and always used in almost all Filipino dishes. It is an ingredient used and added in a dish or snack after a meal.
It is a great type of plantain to use in the featured dessert dish because its sweetness is mild and has a firmer texture than others when you cook it with sweet syrup.
While the sweet mixture is a syrup made from sugar, water, and vanilla, mix to create a wonderful syrup for the featured dessert dish.
What is Best Sweetened Saba Banana

Sweetened Banana or Minatamis na saging is a very popular dessert and snack of all time. It is a Filipino well-known dessert made with plantain, particularly Saba, cooked in a sugar and water mixture or sweet syrup.
Some people added a pandan leaf or vanilla extract and a pinch of salt to balance the dessert dish's taste when making it. They also use other ingredients like sago, sweet potato, or other fruits to improve the dish and elevate it to an extraordinary dish that everybody would love to eat at home.
This dish is usually an ingredient added to other desserts, particularly on a dish called Halo-halo. You add the sweet plantain to a shaved ice with other ingredients and milk.
It is a dessert which is very simple and quick to make. You have to cut or slice the plantain in uniform sizes. The slice's size and thickness depend upon the desired sizes and thickness in the plantain slice, but some do not slice the plantain and cook it as a whole.
After you slice it, boil the water in a casserole. When the water is boiling, you could add the pandan leaf and plantain, cook it for ten minutes. You could then add and pour out the sugar or brown sugar and boil it until the sugar dilutes and thickened.
Many people love to eat this dish because of its sweet, authentic taste and its rich, bold flavors as a dessert. You could do many different variations on this dish since it is a dessert that could stand alone.
Ways to Cook for Minatamis na Saging

This simple dish has certain ways to cook it. Suppose you are a beginner or new to cooking and want to try making this dish. Here are the two particular ways of cooking it.
Instant pot
Cooking the plantain in an instant pot is very simple and quick. All you have to do is put all the ingredients in the pot and set its cooking time. After that, you could serve the dessert. Of course, you have to use a multi-cooker if you decide to use this way of cooking this dish.
In this method, you don't need to boil the water before you put the plantain. You should put all the ingredients in the pot then cook it. It is pretty much easier to use as a technique of cooking it than a stovetop.
Stovetop
This way of cooking is the traditional method of cooking the dish. This technique requires you to boil the water first, then add the plantain. Afterward, add the sugar to create a sweet syrup mixture, then serve the dessert.
Instead of using a multi-cooker, you must use a casserole then place it on the top of the burner to start cooking the dish.
Other Delicious Variants and Recipes

When you cook a dessert, you must know the different variations to know what version is perfect and complement it with your taste buds. We provided some of the popular variations of our featured dish.
Minatamis na Saging With Milk
This variation is no different at all from the original version. It is a dish that cooks in a sweet syrup then served. The only thing you could see as the difference is the added milk. You could use evaporated milk or powder milk as long as it satisfies your cravings.
You could either put it while simmering this dish or when it served. Both ways would give the dessert a great taste since you added evaporated milk or powder milk.
Minatamis na Saging With Coconut Milk
However, while the first version also added milk to the dish, this variant also added milk to the menu. Instead of evaporated or powder milk, you could use and add coconut milk to it.
Coconut milk is much creamier, tastier and would surely kick your taste buds when you try this version. It also adds a wonderful and delicious flavor to the dish because of its natural taste and sweetness. It helps to balance the overall sweetness of this menu.
Like the first version, you could add the coconut milk while cooking the dish or after cooking it. Both ways would add more taste to the dessert.
Saba Con Yelo
It is a version that many people love to eat and serve. This version is not just a simple menu but with a twist. It is also popularly known as Saging Con Yelo in Spanish. Like the first two, you would add milk to eat, either evaporated or coconut milk.
But, before adding milk to it, you have to shave the ice. Place it above the dessert, then pour out the milk. It is not similar to Halo-halo dessert but somehow adding shaved ice and milk to the recipes.
Much Filipino love to eat it as a snack or dessert after their meals. The ice and the milk helps to balance the sweetness of the dessert featured in this article.
With Sago
The last version of this famous dessert on the list is this recipe with sago. Like the ordinary dish, you have to cook the plantain first, then add the sago.
Before adding the sago, you have to cook it as well. Afterward, you may add the sago when you are making this dessert. It is also one of the famous versions that Filipinos love to serve and to eat. It is the elevated way of the featured dish.
Trivia about these recipes
Did you also know that bananas are a berry fruit? That's right! It is a fruit considered as a berry. Also, It floats in the water.
Many people did not consider it as a tree; instead, they considered it a giant herb.
It is a fruit that is available all year round. You could harvest almost every day of the week.
It is a perfect source of potassium, dietary fiber, and vitamin C. It also helps to replenish the necessary glycogen, burned body fluids, and carbohydrates. It contains no cholesterol, sodium, or fats.
It is not commercially grown in the United States Continental. It is particularly growing in South and Latin American countries like Ecuador, Honduras, Guatemala, Panama, and Costa Rica.
It is the number one fruit in America. An ordinary American person consumes over 28 pounds of plantains every year. Almost 96 percent of American households purchase them at least once every month.
On the other hand, Minatamis na Saging dish contains 72 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of protein, and no fat. It also has one percent of vitamin A, four percent of calcium, eight percent of iron, and 18 percent of vitamin C.
Tips for cooking these recipes
Errors would be minimal to occur in cooking when you follow these few simple steps in creating the dish.
- Ensure that the plantain you purchase in the market is ripe.
- Slice the plantain in uniform for easy and quick cooking.
- When creating the syrup, make sure that you lower the heat and boil it enough to thicken the syrup's sauce.
- You could also add vanilla extract to enhance the flavor of the dish.
Troubleshooting when cooking these recipes
When you make an error, the only choice you have is finding a solution that helps you save your dessert.
- To avoid burning the sweet syrup, make sure that cooking using a stovetop lowers the heat.
- You could also add milk or water if you taste your dessert is more like sweet syrup than its flavor.
- A pinch of salt would be a great help to balance the taste.
Best Serve With
A delicious dessert and snack should not serve without other great dishes to partner with the featured dessert dish. We give you the list of possible dishes that submerge with the taste of the desert.
Kare kare- is a dish perfect with our desert because of its palette flavors.
Beef Curry- is a beef dish that compliments the sweetness of the dish since it is a savory dish.
Pork and Chicken Adobo- is a popular dish perfect with the featured dessert since it has the sour, salt, and savory flavor that is perfect with the featured dish sweetness.
Pork Dinakdakan- is a pork dish perfect for the featured dish to serve on any occasion. It helps the dish to stand out because of its taste.
Pork Kilawin- is a dish that compliments the flavor of the featured menu. Pork dishes are perfect for serving with dessert-like our menu.
Binagoongang Baboy- is a dish that is very salty and savory, which enhances the sweet taste of the dessert when serving it along with the main dish.
Adobong Dilaw- is a dish that matches the flavor's palette of the featured dessert dish.
Tortang Talong with Giniling- is a dish that perfectly fits with our menu. It complements the sweet and delicate taste of the dessert when serving it along with it.
Yellowfin Tuna- is a fish dish that is perfect for serving with the dessert dish since it has an ocean flavor and taste, which our dessert could help to get rid of and not to overpower the featured dish.
Nilasing na Hipon- is a seafood dish which has the ocean-taste and flavor. It perfectly matches the sweet, delicate taste of the dish.
Suwam na tahong- is another seafood dish like the shrimp dish since it tastes like a sea. This dish could make the dessert stand out when served together.
Tortang Alamang- is a fried seafood dish that works well with our dessert.
Bangus steak - is a fish dish that compliments the dish's sweetness since it has a savory and salty taste and flavor.
Ampalaya Con Carne is a vegetable dish with a bitter taste and complements the featured dish's sweet taste in this article.
Coffee- is the most popular classic drink served along with our dessert. It has a bitter taste that matches the sweetness of the featured dish.
Conclusion
Creating an amazing dessert like the best sweetened Saba Banana is easy if you know all the details about it, including the ingredients needed, recipes, ways of cooking, techniques, variations, and other information.
Thus, to help you. We provided you all you have to know to create and make this amazing dish that you would love to serve with your family and friends.
It is easy and quick to make a dish that would not take you more than 20 minutes to create and prepare. Hence, all the ingredients needed are available in the market, so you would not have difficulty finding all you need.
So, get all your ingredients, equipment, and let's start making this incredible dessert. Enjoy exploring the different Filipino flavors!
For more delicious recipe, visit Eat Like Pinoy!
Recipe
Ingredients
- 10 pcs Saba banana ripened
- 3 cups Water
- 2 cups Brown sugar
- 1 stem Pandan leaves
Instructions
- Boil water in a casserole.
- Once the water boils, add the banana and pandan leaves. Let it boil for 10 minutes.
- Then pour-in brown sugar and cook for 25 minutes or until the sugar is diluted.
- Serve while hot. Enjoy!