Jackfruit Stew ~ Vegan Pot Roast Recipe (2024)

FAQs

How to cook jackfruit like meat? ›

Simply tease the raw jackfruit apart with your hands or two forks, mix with your favorite spice blend (barbecue or fajita seasonings work well), and sauté before serving in buns with slaw or in fajitas, burritos, or tamales (these are filled with jackfruit and drizzled with a bright and fresh cilantro sauce).

Jackfruit is an exotic fruit with a unique shredded meat-like texture. This makes it a popular plant-based replacement for meat in curries, tacos, or pulled meat sandwiches. Thanks to its mild flavor, jackfruit can easily be incorporated into various other recipes, appetizers, and desserts.

Jackfruit has a mildly sweet flavor to it, and can be used in place of meats in a variety of recipes. The jackfruit will cook down into what resembles shredded chicken or pork, and when sautéed with BBQ sauce and put in a sandwich or wrap, it will have the same texture and is very satisfying.

However, before cooking with it in a recipe, you may like to boil the fresh unripe jackfruit for around 45 minutes to ensure it becomes tender in the final dish. If the recipe has a long cook time, like this jackfruit rendang, you can skip this step.

Before you take a bite, it's helpful to know what to expect. The jackfruit texture is not dissimilar to a banana, mango, or pineapple in terms of being dense and fibrous. But the taste is quite distinctive. Some say it's sweet, and some say a jackfruit has a flavor similar to pulled pork, especially when cooked.

Jackfruit can also be harmful if you eat it with milk or carbonated drinks. It may cause digestion and skin issues. You should avoid drinking water after the consumption of jackfruit as it can lead to diarrhoea. Jackfruit is a high water content fruit that smoothes out bowel movements.

However, because the Heart Foundation warns people about the sodium content of canned foods, it's best that you rinse canned vegetables, including your jackfruit, prior to cooking them. Not only will your heart thank you, but whatever seasonings you add won't be competing with the salt of the brine.

The Bottom Line. Jackfruit is very good for you for many reasons. It is high in nutrients and antioxidants and may have a number of health benefits, including improved blood sugar control. You can easily incorporate jackfruit into your diet by eating it plain or in various dishes.

Jackfruit is also rich in the phytochemicals that are protective against certain cancers, as well as flavonoids and lignans that can reduce inflammation. A cup of sliced jackfruit is just 157 calories, making it a lean alternative to shredded pork or chicken, which it's often used to substitute.

What Does Jackfruit Taste Like? Ripe yellow jackfruit has a subtly sweet flavor, often described as a combination of banana, apple, and mango. Young green jackfruit, on the other hand, has a neutral flavor and texture similar to shredded meat, making it a popular meat substitute in savory dishes.

How do you make jackfruit taste good? ›

Garlic and onion powder — Combined with the barbecue sauce, these make the jackfruit taste super flavorful and extra savory. Feel free to substitute in a few cloves of fresh garlic for the powder. Paprika — Adds a nice peppery flavor without too much heat.

On the other hand, lower market competition provides sellers and buyers with more options and increased bargaining power, leading to higher jackfruit prices. The price of jackfruit is largely influenced by transportation costs, a factor particularly relevant due to the large and heavy nature of the fruit.

Ripe jackfruit tastes sweet. The overripe fruit has a strong fruity odor and a sweet, almost pungent, taste.

Ripe jackfruit is commonly eaten raw like other fruits, or it can be used in sweet applications like desserts. Unripe or young green jackfruit can be consumed raw as well, but because of its neutral flavor, it is much more suited for absorbing flavor in savory cooking applications.

The flesh of young, unripe jackfruit used in savory applications has a neutral (as in, not fruity) flavor that absorbs marinades and spices well. It has a meaty, firm texture that pulls apart into strings that are reminiscent of pulled pork.

Compared to ripe jackfruit, unripe jackfruit has a stringy, meaty texture similar to that of beef or pork. This texture—along with the fruit's neutral, almost bland taste, which can accommodate the flavor of whatever it's cooked is a large reason why jackfruit is such a popular meat alternative.

If you're ready to add them to your must-try list, simply boil them for 20-30 minutes, season and serve. When cooked, the flavor and texture is reminiscent of potatoes! They're also nutrient-rich and high in protein, so they're a great addition to your menu.