Majule: Colombian Llanos Plantain and Cuajada Porridge
A warm, thick preparation of very ripe plantains, milk and fresh cheese
Majule is a hot, filling preparation from Colombia’s Orinoquía Llanos, made by cooking very ripe plantains until soft, mashing them, simmering the mash with milk and stirring in fresh cuajada. The finished bowl sits between a thick drink, a spoonable porridge and a simple dessert. It is naturally sweet from the fruit, with a mild, lightly salty contrast from the cheese.
This four-serving home version follows the measured preparation documented in Colombia’s Ministry of Culture regional cookbook: four nearly black ripe plantains, three cups of milk and half a pound of cuajada. It keeps the original sequence—boil, mash, simmer with milk, then add crumbled cheese—while expressing the dairy in metric amounts. Other Llanos versions slice the plantains thinly, cook them longer or add cinnamon. Those are useful variations, but this recipe keeps cinnamon optional so the ripe fruit and cheese remain the defining flavors.
Choose plantains with mostly black skins and soft, fragrant flesh. Green or merely yellow plantains stay starchy and will not mash into the same sweet, cohesive base. The plantains are cooked in water first, so the final mixture is easier to control than if the milk were used for the entire cooking stage. Mash thoroughly while hot, then add milk gradually; cuajada moisture and plantain size both affect thickness.
