Here's How To Substitute Trader Joe's Discontinued Plantain Croutons

There are rules to building the perfect salad, and they're all about balance: crunchy and creamy, salty and sweet, acid and fat. Some of the ingredients can multitask; bacon, for instance, is crunchy, salty, and fatty. Majorly creamy elements like a perfectly ripe avocado need a crunchy counterpart. Trader Joe's plantain croutons, for a too-brief time, were a perfect gluten-free, vegan, salty, crunchy topper for your salad. And with them likely gone from shelves, it's time to find alternatives to adorn your salads.

Trader Joe's plantain croutons are basically cubed tostones — the crunchy plantain snack darling of the Caribbean. If you can find green plantains, you can make your own. For a quick crunch, the grocery store still carries various flavors of plantain chips. Viable replacements for your TJ's plantain croutons can be found on Amazon, or any other outlet that sells chickpeas, seaweed, peas, and crispy cheese snacks. If it crunches, it's worth trying atop your salad. Let's get into it.

If you're mourning the disappearance of plantain croutons from the Trader Joe's shelves, it's time to learn how to make tostones. Popular in Caribbean cuisines like Puerto Rican and Cuban, tostones are twice-fried green plantains. Though they are related and may look like giant bananas, green plantains are incredibly starchy and don't taste like bananas. This makes them a great crouton replacement. If you can't find them in your supermarket, you should be able to find them at any Latinx market. For tostones, you'll want your plantains to be very green.

To make your tostones a little lighter, we recommend baking rather than frying, like in this recipe from Mashed — but if you want to pan-fry them for your salad, we won't stop you. Making your own allows you to customize your spice mix. Garlic powder and sea salt will echo the Trader Joe's croutons, but you could also toss them in ranch powder, chili powder, za'atar, or whatever else your heart desires. If you can't get over the shape, experiment with cook times for cubed plantains. Chewier croutons will require a shorter cook time, while crunchier ones will take longer in the oven or air fryer.

Even if they're not from Trader Joe's, you can get plantain croutons at numerous outlets across the internet. Plenty of companies make plantain croutons with garlic, onion, and other flavors. If it crunches, it can sub in for plantain croutons. Get creative, and don't be afraid to use your imagination. Seaweed crisps? Wasabi peas? Give it a shot on an Asian-inspired salad. For crunchy protein, we love crispy chickpeas. Like making your own oven-baked tostones, you can make your own crispy chickpeas with any flavoring, like these cheesy roasted chickpeas.

Looking for an even cheesier crunch to grab right off the Trader Joe's shelves? Thanks to the rise of the keto diet years ago, it's easy to find crispy cheese at Trader Joe's and elsewhere these days. Feel free to experiment — it doesn't have to be a crouton to add a crunchy element and balance your salad.