Pulled jackfruit sandwiches

This is a dish that I have been planning in my head for a long time, and finally now I made my first version of it: vegan pulled jackfruit sandwiches. Ever since I first tried jackfruit, I was very impressed, what a versatile fruit to use in vegan and vegetarian cooking. It's only a shame that it's fairly difficult to get around here. I ordered mine online. 

By the way I really like my new disposable pine wood food trays. They are from a sustainable source and look so cute. Of course disposable plates aren't really the way to go, but for the occasional presentation they are fine. They add a little bit of a street food vibe to these.

These sandwiches were really nice, but I'm sure that I can still improve things with a little practise. Fried halloumi would go nicely in these, if you want to make a non-vegan version. Have a look at the recipe below, if you're interested.

Pulled jackfruit sandwiches

Ingredients

280 g can of jackfruit

1 tbsp vegetable oil

Vegetable stock extract to taste

Liquid smoke to taste

1 onion

1 garlic clove

Mixed salad leaves

Spiralised yellow and red beetroot

Cherry tomatoes

4 ciabatta rolls

Method

Cook the jackfruit in a pan in little oil and vegetable stock until it's soft and falls apart. Keep adding water or stock regularly so that the pan doesn't dry out. Just before serving mix in the liquid smoke.

Cut the onion into half rings and fry them in a pan. Chop the garlic clove finely and cook it with the onion for a few minutes.

Mix the jackfruit with the onion.

Prepare the fresh veg for the sandwiches and bake the rolls.

Fill the rolls with the veg and jackfruit mix and enjoy!

Your VegHog

Jackfruit jalfrezi

Only a few months back, perhaps in the spring of this year, I ate a jackfruit jalfrezi from a street food stall. It was my first time ever eating jackfruit. The dish was very spicy and I could hardly finish it for that reason, but at the same time it was so tasty and the jackfruit was brilliant in the curry. Ever since then I obviously wanted to cook such a dish myself, as I don't have a constant access to that street food stall.

I started planning the dish and decided to keep it simple and let the jackfruit be the star. I combined it with garam masala, chilli and ginger spices and tomatoes. My own vegan jackfruit jalfrezi was much less spicy than the street food one, but still packs a punch. I really loved the colours in this dish, could it even be something for a different Christmas meal? Have a look at my recipe below.

Jackfruit jalfrezi

Ingredients

280 g / 1 can jackfruit

Vegetable oil

1 tbsp vegetable stock powder

3 onions

4 garlic cloves

2 cm fresh ginger

2 green chillies

2 carrots

1 tbsp garam masala

2 tsp turmeric

300 g tomatoes

5 tbsp tomato purée

Pomegranate seeds

Fresh coriander

1 cup brown basmati, red camargue and wild rice mix

Method

Drain and rinse the canned jackfruit and start cooking it in oil in a pan. Cook until some of the liquid has evaporated and then add vegetable stock powder and some water. Keep simmering and adding water whenever needed until the jackfruit falls apart and is softened.

Chop the onions and cook them in a covered saucepan for about 30 minutes until soft and little bit browned.

Chop the garlic, ginger, chillies and carrots finely and add them to the onions.

After a while frying, add the garam masala and turmeric followed by the chopped tomatoes.

Let simmer under lid until the tomatoes have become a sauce. Add some tomato purée to the pan as well and also the jackfruit. Let simmer further.

Season to taste and let simmer until you are happy with the flavours and textures.

Serve with fresh pomegranate seeds, coriander and rice.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Smoky pulled jackfruit wraps

I've been admiring jackfruit recipes on the internet for quite a while now. Especially the recipes by my blogging colleague Shaheen have inspired me to cook with the curious fruit. Recently I made an online order for four jackfruit cans and can hopefully cook a variation of dishes with them. My first attempt were these spicy and smoky pulled jackfruit wraps, which are vegan. I didn't follow any recipes for this, I just wanted to cook jackfruit in a Mexican style dish. So I invented as I went along. It took quite a while to get the jackfruit into the correct chewy texture, and I'm sure I could've cooked it even longer. Then the sun went down on me and the photos are a bit dark. Sadly I had to realise that we had entered the season of the darker food photos.

Here is my first ever jackfruit recipe anyway, for many more to come!

Ingredients

280 g / 1 can jackfruit

1 large onion

4 garlic cloves

1 chilli

Vegetable oil

Splashes of liquid aminos

Splashes of liquid smoke

1 tsp vegetable stock extract

140 g / 1 small can sweetcorn

1 tsp smoked chilli paste

1 red bell pepper

Few leaves of gem lettuce

Wholemeal tortilla wraps

Chilli ketchup or mayo

Method

Drain and rinse the jackfruit.

Chop the onion, garlic and chilli finely.

Heat oil in a pan and start cooking the onions there.

Soon add the jackfruit pieces and splashes of liquid aminos and liquid smoke. Also keep adding a little bit extra water with the vegetable stock extract and let simmer until the jackfruit starts darkening and pulling itself apart while the harder bits soften.

Once the jackfruit is nearly done, add the garlic and chilli to the pan and cook some more.

Add the sweetcorn and the smoked chilli paste and let simmer for a while until the flavours have blended and when you think that the texture is right.

Add more seasoning to taste, if needed.

Assemble the wraps by adding the lettuce and bell pepper as the fresh ingredients and combining them with the jackfruit and corn mix.

Season with a chilli ketchup or mayo and enjoy.

Your VegHog