How to Eat Jackfruit
Jackfruit is one of Mother Nature's largest fruit creations! It has a sweet, musky and tropical flavor that combines the tastes of mango, pineapple and banana. Its soft, golden pods of fruit are quite juicy with the texture that’s a bit like a chewy apricot. Jackfruit has a fragrant aroma that’s a heady mix of fruit punch, sugar and pungent cheese.
This eye-catching fruit is absolutely ginormous and completely covered in a spiky, green rind. Clocking in at up to 120lbs, a jackfruit looks like a giant dino egg.
Once you learn how to break down a jackfruit, you can eat it in endless raw and cooked preparations. Young jackfruit is used just as often in recipes as it is in its mature and ripe state. Plus, the seeds are delicious and only edible when cooked. Jackfruit can be eaten in countless ways for savory recipes, soups, snacks, confections and beverages. Jackfruit is often used as a meat substitute in vegetarian cooking, and is flexible enough to find a perfect home in desserts as well.
Jackfruits can be difficult for some people to slice open because of the size of the fruit. Therefore, we recommend an adult for this job.
Jackfruit might look weird, but it doesn’t take much to learn how to eat it. FruitStand, wants you to roll up your sleeves, slap some coconut oil on your hands and eat more jackfruit! Keep reading to learn all about how!
Having a plan for breaking down a gigantic jackfruit will make the experience both successful and rewarding.
First, secure a non-porous cutting board with traction by putting a damp napkin or towel underneath. Then, grab some kitchen gloves, a chef’s knife and some cooking oil. Jackfruit pros recommend oiling up your knife to help it glide through the sticky goo inside. Once your knife work is done, oil up your gloves before extracting the inner fruit pods.
Like a pineapple, jackfruits have a fibrous inner core. Using a large, sharp knife, cut the fruit in half around the lengthwise perimeter. Then, with the flat side down, slice the jackfruit in half again. Finally, cut along the core line to detach the pods. Remove the fruit pods from the husky fibers and enjoy!.
The chunky, edible pods can be further sliced, or saved whole. The seeds are only edible after being cooked, for instance by boiling or baking.
Jackfruit is extremely versatile and can be used in more recipes than there are spikes on the rind!
- Meat Substitute: Unripened jackfruit is known to absorb tons of flavor when cooked with other ingredients. Its naturally chewy texture makes it a delicious protein source for vegetable based dishes.
- Baking: Jackfruit can be baked into cakes, breads, pies and cookies. It’s also well suited for pastry cream.
- Confection: The juicy sweetness of jackfruit comes to life in jams, jellies and candy making.
- Snacks: Seed can be cooked through roasting or boiling and turned into delicious dips, stews, or a starchy snack.
This juicy fruit was made for drinks! Here are some easy ways use jackfruit in your beverages:
- Juicing: De-seeded jackfruit pods can be popped into your juicer for a sweet and musky flavor to your juice recipes. Jackfruit pairs well with other produce like pineapple, coconut, mango, lemon and lime.
- Smoothies: Whether you have leftover jackfruit or want to use a whole jackfruit in smoothies, we recommend freezing it for best use. To prepare your jackfruit for smoothies, freeze de-seeded jackfruit pods on a cookie sheet with space in between each piece. Once frozen, store them in an airtight container in the freezer. You can easily pop frozen jackfruit cubes into smoothies!
- Cocktails: Tropical and tiki-inspired cocktails are made even more special with jackfruit juice and added as garnish.
Do you feel like a jackfruit eating expert now? Show us your favorite ways to prepare and eat jackfruit by tagging us in your culinary masterpieces on Instagram @Fruitstandcom !