Air Fryer Tostones

Tostones are the rhythm section of Caribbean cooking — not the star of the plate, but there at nearly every meal, holding everything together. Green plantains, too starchy to eat raw, get cooked soft, smashed flat, then cooked again until the edges go crisp and the centers stay creamy. Puerto Rico serves them with a garlicky mojo; in Colombia and Ecuador the same thing is a patacón, sometimes the size of a plate. The two-step method isn't fuss for its own sake — it's the only way to turn a hard green plantain into something this good.

The classic version is twice-fried, and that's where the honest tradeoff lives: deep oil gives tostones a uniform, golden crunch all the way across. The air fryer keeps the two-cook logic — soften, smash, crisp — but trades the oil bath for a brush of oil and moving heat. You lose a touch of that even, fried color and gain a tostón that's lighter, less greasy, and made without standing over a spitting pan. The smash-and-crisp magic survives the swap intact.

This one is naturally free of gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, and soy — plantains, oil, salt, and a garlic-lime mojo. A rare side you can set in front of almost any table without a second thought.

Spread the discs out in a roomy basket so they crisp instead of steaming each other soft.