Jackfruit Tacos

I bought a can of jackfruit on a whim.  I've never had it, but it has a good reputation on vegan sites, so I went looking for something to do with it.

The recipes generally agree that cooked green jackfruit has the texture of pulled pork and is a blank slate for all sorts of seasonings.  However, if you read the back of the can, you'll realize that it's a black hole nutritionally.  You're going to need another protein if you plan to make this your "meat", and other veggies with fiber and vitamins for all the other good stuff.  That's why these have a side of Caribbean black beans.

For the most part, I followed the recipe on It Doesn't Taste Like Chicken, a vegan site.  It had a detailed photo of how to slice the fruit.  Also, because I happened to have bought the same brand as in their photo.  I forgot to rinse them first, so I skipped the salt in the recipe; there's plenty of salt in commercial tortillas to compensate.  The only other major change was heating the spices with the onion, Indian style, before adding the jackfruit and water.

Despite the generous amount of spices and onion, the jackfruit mixture does come across a little bland.  Some hot sauce would probably fix that, but I can't have it.  I also did forget to slice up some red onion the first night.  That added a bit of bite, but not tons.  The arugula I was using up brought more flavor to the party.

1 Tb vegetable oil
*1/2 onion, sliced and chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp each paprika and cumin
1 tsp chili powder
1/4 C water or vegetable broth
*1 tsp lime juice
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1 can green jackfruit in brine
tortillas and toppings for tacos

1.  Heat oil over medium in a large skillet.  Add onion and cook until softened, about 5 minutes.  Add garlic and spices and cook until fragrant, another 2-3 minutes.

2.  While the onion is cooking, prepare the jackfruit.  Drain fruit and rinse.  On a cutting surface, chop each piece radially, so there is a little core holding together the fibrous parts of each slice.  Make the slices thin, and you'll start to notice the pile of finished pieces looking a lot like thinly sliced pork.  Add to the skillet with the lime juice and water.  Cover, lower heat, and simmer until water is mostly absorbed, about 10 minutes.

3.  With a cooking spoon, or even a fork if you didn't use a non-stick skillet, break up jackfruit pieces.  A potato masher can also be an option, again if you aren't worried about scratching up a non-stick.  You can break them as much as you'd like.  I went until I could barely tell the difference between the fruit and pulled pork.

4.  Spoon the cooked jackfruit mixture onto tortillas with other toppings like lettuce, cilantro, avocado, onions, tomatoes, jalapeños, or whatever else you would put in a pulled-pork taco.  I decided to keep these vegan and skipped any cheese or sour cream, but there's nothing wrong with adding some.

Difficulty rating  π