This recipe for a vegan pulled jackfruit burger is a game changer in my homemade burger recipes repertoire. I don’t use the word game changer easily though. So hear me out on this. First, cutting and cleaning up fresh jackfruit is a nightmare. To avoid this, I opt to buy cleaned up packs or cans of young jackfruit without any added preservatives or salt. Second, I make a quick and easy BBQ style tomato-spice based sauce at home. This results in a low salt, low sugar and preservative free saucy vegan burger filling. The resulting cooked jackfruit is a meaty texture with finger licking homemade BBQ style sauce stuffed between a soft brioche bun. This is vegan, tasty and guilt-free eating at it’s best. We make these burgers especially on Friday nights when not making my pizza, burrito bowls or Saag paneer 🙂
Quick Facts on Jackfruit
What is Jackfruit ? Jackfruit is a tree in the fig, mulberry, and breadfruit family. It is native to south Asia particularly south west India and Sri Lanka. Growing up jackfruit curries would take almost the entire day to prep in our house since peeling, cleaning and cutting fresh jackfruit is a cumbersome task. Nevertheless the thick jackfruit curry a.k.a “kathal ki sabji” is one of my fondest curry memories.
These days jackfruit is considered a hot trending meat substitute in the vegan or plant based food industry. It is deemed to have the same taste and texture like meat. I have never eaten red meat my whole life as I was raised on a lacto-ovo-vegetarian diet. But few meat eating friends and acquaintances do agree on the similarities between cooked jackfruit and meat.
More Benefits of Eating Jackfruit
Jackfruit has numerous health benefits as it is packed full of fibre, antioxidants and vitamins (especially Vitamin A and C). And it is also touted to be a very sustainable way of growing food crops especially in the climate changing world we are living in. It is drought resistant surviving pests at high temperatures. Anyway I am a firm believer that including more plants in your diet does only good – both for you and everything around you.
Where to buy jackfruit ? I have found clean, shredded and preservative-free jackfruit in numerous speciality, organic and health food stores through out Australia. It should also be readily available in Asian, Indian or Caribbean and online food stores. If you live in any south Asian country especially Sri Lanka or India, you will obviously be able to source the fresh raw variety more easily. The canned variety is normally the younger green variety that is less sweet. So look for canned young jackfruit in water or brine with low or no salt.
Different ways of cooking with Jackfruit : I love jackfruit cooked in spices to make curries, gravies or thick sauces. Jackfruit soaks up flavours of spices and marinades like a sponge, so you are going to get a flavour explosion in your mouth. Here are a couple of recipes from the internet for your inspiration
- Easy Jackfruit Curry
- Asian Jackfruit Lettuce Wraps
- BBQ Vegan Jackfruit Ribs
- Vegan Jackfruit Pot Pie
- Vegan Nachos with Barbecue Jackfruit
Notes on Vegan Pulled Jackfruit Burger Recipe
On its own jackfruit does not have any taste. Peeled and shredded jackfruit takes on the sauce and seasoning it is cooked in. Hence the key is to get your sauce/curry/seasoning right. So in this recipe try to prep and assemble all the ingredients at once so the sauce comes together with ease. Using a can of young jackfruit as opposed to cutting a fresh jackfruit will also save considerable prep time.
On Arrowroot powder : Arrowroot powder is a starchy powder extracted from the tropical arrowroot plant. It is used for thickening in baking / desserts. It is naturally gluten and grain-free with a neutral flavour and aroma. This powder is more easily digested than other thickeners. It it one of the better substitutes for corn flour. I use arrowroot powder to coat the raw potato wedges in olive oil and salt prior to baking. This powder is responsible for creating the crispy potatoes making them as good as fries 🙂
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Vegan Pulled Jackfruit Burger
Equipment
- oven
Ingredients
- 300 grams plain young jackfruit canned variety w/o any added salt or sauces
- 1 can tomatoes App. 400 grams
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp cumin toasted and crushed
- 1 tsp coriander seeds toasted and crushed
- 1/2 tbsp wholegrain mustard
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
- 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
- 1 tbsp Worcester sauce I use a vegan variety
- 1 tbsp brown sugar or coconut sugar
- 1 tsp salt or as per taste
- 2 medium brioche style buns
- 1 medium avocado sliced
For the baked potato wedges
- 1 medium golden sweet potato
- 1-2 medium potatoes
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp arrowroot powder or tapioca starch
- 1 tsp sea salt
Instructions
- In a flat sauce pan, roast the cumin seeds and coriander seeds for a few minutes until they are fragrant and toasted but not burnt. Then crush them together in a mortar and pestle.
- In medium sauce pan, heat olive oil. Then add in the cleaned and shredded young jackfruit, the crushed toasted cumin & coriander seeds. Next add in the can of tomatoes along with smoked paprika, Worcester sauce, wholegrain mustard , apple cider vinegar, black pepper, brown sugar and salt.
- Let the spiced tomato sauce simmer for a bit (about 8-10 minutes) until the sauce thickens and is no longer watery.
- Continue cooking and stirring the jackfruit in the thickening sauce for about 5 minutes until the sauce is well coated and absorbed in the jackfruit. At this stage the burgers are ready to assemble.
- Toast and slice brioche style burger buns. Load up the jackfruit mixture along with the sliced avocados and. baked potato wedges (as below)
For the baked potato wedges
- Preheat the oven to 200 deg centigrade
- In a large mixing bowl, toss in potato wedges, arrowroot starch, olive oil and sea salt.
- In a baking tray arrange the sliced potato wedges in a line . Ensure they are not sticking to each other as the steam released will cause the wedges to become soggy and not crisp enough.
- Bake the potato chips in a pre-heated oven about 10 minutes until crispy. Then flip over the chips to bake on the other side ensure they are not burnt