Meatless Mondays just got… fruitier?

In 2014, NPR called jackfruit “A Ginormous Fruit To Feed The World” and The Guardian heralded jackfruit as a “miracle crop” for its potential to replace food supplies under threat by climate change, while this summer, a puzzled National Post writer dubbed jackfruit “the produce that needs a user’s manual.”

Jackfruit is…

If you’ve tried ripe jackfruit in a dessert, seeing it served as pulled pork might confuse you.

See, this tropical fruit has a dual identity. When ripe, jackfruit tastes sweet and somewhat tangy, like a pineapple or mango, but unripe this mild-mannered relative of the mulberry becomes a single-ingredient, meat-substituting superhero.

My first experience with Jackfruit was four years ago, through a link to a YouTube video titled “TV Host Calls Vegan Chef a Liar on National TV.” The clip featured chef Timothy Moore preparing pulled pork-style jackfruit on an Indianapolis morning show, and the host’s utter disbelief convinced me to track down a can in 2012.

These days it’s a lot easier to get this amazingly versatile fruit into your hands - we sell cans of organic young jackfruit at our Kardish stores.  

Take a look at some of the unbelievable recipes we’ve tried:

• BBQ Jackfruit Sandwiches with Avocado Slaw - Made with just 10 ingredients.
• Sriracha “Pulled Pork” Sammiches with Pickled Red Onion - Made with just a ½ cup of sriracha.
• Brown Baggin’ It: Crab Salad - Think gourmet tuna salad, and it’s 100% dolphin-safe.
• Jackfruit Fish-Free Tacos - Great for taco night! Also includes a recipe for cashew cheese sauce.
• Easy Jackfruit Curry - Want to learn how to make curry from scratch?
• Vegan Gyros with Jackfruit and Creamy Tzatziki - This recipe even name-checks the brand of canned jackfruit that we stock.

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Which recipes do you want to make? Feel free to share your thoughts below, and send photos of your favourite jackfruit dishes to Twitter and Facebook. We read everything you send us.