Jackfruit

Jackfruit...

• ...is rich in iron.
  100 g of jackfruit contains 2.1 mg iron, about 17 percent of your daily requirement. This is especially important for vegetarians and vegans, who might otherwise be lacking iron in their diets.
• ...is good for the nervous system.
  With about 131 micrograms of magnesium per 100 g serving, jackfruit contains 37% of your daily requirement of this nervous-system strengthening mineral.
• ...is packed with dietary fiber.
  Unlike meat, fish and other meat alternatives such as tofu, jackfruit is packed with fiber; a 100 g serving contains half your recommended daily intake.
• ...has a relatively high vitamin C content.
  Although there are fruits and vegetables with a significantly higher content, 100 g of jackfruit contains a good 25 percent of your daily requirements, making it the leading source of vitamin C among vegan and vegetarian meat alternatives.
• ...is rich in nutrients.
  Jackfruit contains a plethora of minerals and trace elements such as copper, zinc, potassium and calcium.
• ...contains B vitamins.
  Except for B12, which is found almost exclusively in animal foods, jackfruit provides almost all vitamins from the B group, which help the metabolism and contribute to brain and nervous system health.
• ...supports bone health.
  Just 100 g of jackfruit provides almost half your daily requirement of vitamin K, which plays an important role in blood clotting and inhibits bone loss in women after menopause, which can help prevent osteoporosis.

What You Should Know About Jackfruit

For good reason, some people also call the jackfruit "vegetable meat", as the they have an unripe consistency that is very similar to chicken breast fillet and are therefore a great meat substitute. A typical feature of the jackfruit, apart from its impressive size, is its nubbly skin. Unripe jackfruit has a pale green colour, which turns yellow as it ripens. 

Each jackfruit contains 50-500 whitish seeds that can be eaten. In India they are used to make flour for chapatti and papadums; roasted, they look like peanuts and taste great as a snack when lightly salted.

The jackfruit is usually harvested unripe, especially if it is intended for export and still has a long voyage by ship ahead of it. The good thing about tropical giant fruits: like bananas, they continue to ripen after harvesting.

Origins

The jackfruit originates in the south of India, but has long been growing on trees up to 20 meters high throughout South-East Asia and Brazil, where it is a culinary staple.

Season

Depending on the country of origin, jackfruit is harvested from January to June and from September to December. You can generally get jackfruit year round in the supermarket. 

Flavor

Ripe jackfruit tastes similar to a mix of pineapple and banana, while its seeds taste somewhat like chestnuts.

Our Favorite Jackfruit Recipes

Vegetarian Curried Jackfruit and Tempeh

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40 mins

675 calories

How Healthy Is Jackfruit?

Jackfruit has a special position among fruits in terms of its nutritional value: it is particularly rich in nutritious starch, which explains why it plays an important role in its countries of origin as a staple food and as a substitute for rice. Jackfruit also has a high calcium content of 27 mg per 100 g, which is important for healthy bones and teeth.

The seeds of the jackfruit also have it all: plenty of B vitamins, magnesium, iron and sulphur make them an extremely healthy treat.

Shopping and Cooking Tips

Purchasing

Make sure that the skin of the jackfruit looks intact and flawless. Ripe jackfruits have a strong fragrance and give way slightly with gentle finger pressure. In some specialty stores, you can also find jackfruit picked in brine or dried. 

Storage

An unripe jackfruit can be kept at room temperature for up to about 10 days. Ripe or cut fruit should be kept in the refrigerator.

Preparation

The juice of the jackfruit is delicious, but very sticky. It's therefore best to rub your hands and knife with a little oil before cutting and slicing. Then cut the jackfruit in half lengthwise, remove the seeds and then the pulp. Depending on the degree of ripeness of the jackfruit and the recipe, the flesh can now be easily diced, grated, cut into strips or pureed.

What To Make With Jackfruit

Few fruits are as versatile as the jackfruit. Unripe jackfruit can be prepared like vegetables, while ripe jackfruit tastes wonderful as fruit prepared in all conceivable ways, including as sorbet or ice cream bases, in fruit salads or with yogurt. But that's not all: you can also eat the jackfruit raw, cooked, fried, steamed or even grilled.

Vegetarians enjoy even more possibilities when it comes to jackfruit: the flesh of unripe fruit can be diced or cut into strips and used like chicken breast, or even shredded like pork.

The seeds or seeds of the jackfruit should never be thrown away, as they can be cooked like beans or - if they are very small - be prepared as a side dish instead of rice.