#18 - SUMAN NA SAGING: Steamed Banana Roll

Suman na Saging is one of the many variations of Suman, a steamed rice cake cooked with coconut milk and wrapped in banana or coconut leaves. As the name implies, Suman na Saging makes use of bananas, normally the Saba variety. Suman na Saging itself has also several variations with the addition of coconut meat, cheese, milk. My simple recipe makes use of only 3 basic ingredients: ripe Saba bananas, brown sugar and all-purpose flour. This is how my family likes it.
Living in the US, I seldom get to eat Suman na Saging; only when somebody brings it from the Philippines from their vacation. So I take this challenge of learning how to make Suman na Saging to satisfy a craving. The good thing is banana leaves are now available at our local Filipino store in the frozen section. I wasn’t sure how I would do with wrapping; kind of intimidating. I saw one vlog on TH-cam that I like the way of wrapping the Suman na Saging so I copied it as shown in this video. Using a stand mixer with a flat beater is an effortless way to mash bananas. I haven’t use any other kitchen tools like blender, food processor or food grinder, but I think these can be used too.
Ingredients needed can be viewed at the beginning of the video and recipe card is at the end.
Please watch it. Thank you!

[@fordranger5723]

In Bohol this kind of suman is called dinomugan. Some people use leftover cooked rice (bahaw) to mix with the bananas to make the suman.

[@felicity-kingkitchen1628]

I haven’t seen my Bol-anon mom used left over rice in Suman. That’s interesting!

[@fordranger5723]

all purpose flour is being used here as one of the ingredients instead of finely ground rice. I suggest adding some grated fresh coconut to make it tastier.

[@felicity-kingkitchen1628]

Thank you for your comments. My parents are from Bohol and spent summer vacations in Loboc. I know what is Dinomugan, and the fresh coconut with it. Yes, it’s tastier. From time to time we get pasalubongs of Suman saging from my husband’s family in Pinas with no coconut. I’ve come to love it just plain and simple, adapting to the busyness of life here in the US.