Teriyaki Pulled Jackfruit Burger
I must admit now, I still don’t understand my relationship with Jackfruit. Its qualities intrigue me; plant-based food never fails to fascinate me, as we still seem to find new exciting things to do with fruit and veg. I tried Minimalist Baker’s BBQ pulled jackfruit a while back and loved it and its pulled pork authenticity. I couldn’t help but revisit the jackfruit and experiment with this sweet fruit and it’s magical culinary abilities. Yet, i’m still not certain on jackfruit…
Since travelling around Asia, my troubles with Jackfruit began. I’m afraid it’s the smell. That awesome looking raw fruit smells, quite frankly, odd. Perhaps the smell lingered around me at the fruit stalls while I was sweating with my heavy backpack upon me, therefore I have negative connotations of Jackfruit. Also, it doesn’t smell far off Durian, the most pungent and priciest fruit around that everyone used to adore. To relive this, I thought it’d be best to buy some fresh jackfruit for The Hungry Herbivore Teriyaki Burgers, just so I could turn my nose up at the smell again…
But no way will that smell hold me back from tasting new vegan food possibilities. I found that once cooked and sauced up, you’re left with an amazing texture with naturally sweet goodness!
Since my Jackfruit experience started in Asia, it seemed fit to bring a bit of Asia into the kitchen experimentation. Teriyaki sauce fitted naturally with the jackfruit, bringing the flavours in a sticky sauce alongside an Asian inspired slaw, using typically Asian spices.
Especially if you haven’t tried pulled jackfruit or any form of jackfruit before, our recipe is definitely worth a try. Even if you can’t find fresh jackfruit, you can still use tinned young jackfruit in water! Go for it and see if you can muster the smell of Jackfruit, or is it just me being over dramatic?!
- 200g Fresh Jackfruit (or canned in water)
- ¼ cup soy sauce or tamari
- ¼ cup water
- 2 tbsp. Rice wine vinegar
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- tsp grated ginger
- 1 tbsp. date syrup
- 2 tbsp. dark brown sugar
- 1 tbsp. corn starch/corn flour
- Half a small red cabbage
- 2 Spring onions
- 2 tsp wasabi powder (or 1 tsp wasabi paste)
- 1 tsp grated ginger
- 1 tbsp. mirin
- 2 tbsp. lime juice
- 2-3 Gluten-free buns
- Fresh basil leaves (optional)
- To start, prepare your jackfruit. Remove any hard cores and slice in half.
- In a non-stick pan, whisk together soy sauce, water, rice wine vinegar, garlic, ginger, date syrup and brown sugar on medium heat.
- Take the corn starch and separately whisk with 2 tbsp of water until there are no lumps. Whisk into the rest of the sauce.
- Whisk frequently until it starts to thicken. Now add the Jackfruit to the sauce.
- Keep stirring the jackfruit and sauce adding water when needed, to stop the sauce burning and thickening too much*
- After 20-25 mins of cooking the jackfruit, shred with two forks to imitate the texture of pulled pork.
- For the slaw, chop the cabbage thinly along with the spring onion. Toss together with the wasabi, mirin, lime juice and seasoning to taste.
- Toast your buns and assemble the burgers!
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