BBQ jackfruit

Cooking from scratch with jackfruit can be... intimidating to say the least. The key is to pack as much flavour as possible into what you season it with, making sure you've removed as much moisture as possible and then frying it until it's crispy!

I bought this jackfruit from the tins isle in my local Waitrose. It was pretty pricey (I think £2 a can?) but it was a nice change to the usual meat substitutes I use. I think Tesco also stock their own brand now for just over £1 so it's becoming more and more accessible!

Jackfruit is pretty tasteless on its own, hence the warning to add lots of flavour! The BBQ spice mix along with the BBQ sauce in the recipe paired perfectly to make punchy jackfruit. Just make sure you remove any hard bits when you're shredding it, as otherwise they can add a weird texture.

This made 2 servings, and took around 2 hours (including marinating time) to make!

Ingredients

• One can of jackfruit in water (around 40g when drained and prepared)
• 2 TSP vegan BBQ seasoning (I used this one, or you can make your own with paprika, brown sugar, salt, cumin and chilli powder)
• 2 large spring onions
• 1 TBSP vegan BBQ sauce (I used heinz!), plus more for serving
• 1 TSP vegetable oil, for frying.

Method

1. A couple of hours before you want to start cooking, prepare the jackfruit. Drain it, then pat the pieces with kitchen roll to remove as much mositure as possible. Cut off the hard traingle bits on the ends, and "shred" the rest of the jackfruit either with your hands or with a fork. You should be left with lots of small shreds of jackfruit.
2.  After squeezing in kitchen towel to remove any remaining water, add the jackfruit to a bowl and then the BBQ seasoning, BBQ sauce, and chopped spring onions. Mix until the jackfruit is coated, and leave to marinade for a couple of hours.
3. Once the jackfruit is done marinating, heat the oil in a large frying pan and fry the jackfruit on a medium heat until it goes crispy. 
4. Congrats, you've conqured jackfruit! I served it with vegetable rice, but if you want to be really fancy it would work well in a burrito or on top of nachos too ☺