Jackfruit curry is a delicious vegan curry made with lots of flavorful spices. This tastes similar to meat curry because of the texture of raw jackfruit and the blend of the spices it is cooked with. This curry is vegan, gluten-free & made in Indian style.
Jackfruit, or Kathel, or fanas is a popular fruit in India. This is a seasonal fruit. The raw fruit is used as a vegetable, especially in spring (pre-summers). This is a vegan meat substitute. When cooked, they resemble a lot of meat in terms of taste and texture.
Nutrition of Jackfruit
Though jackfruit is a fruit, the raw form of it is popular and cooked as a vegetable. Raw Jackfruit is a superfood, a vegetable high in protein (3gm per serving), fiber, vitamins, and minerals. It's rich in vitamin C and one of the few fruits high in B vitamins. Jackfruit also contains folate, niacin, riboflavin, potassium, and magnesium. Read more on it here.
Jackfruit Curry
If you have curry sauce in the refrigerator, you can speed up the cooking process by eliminating a few steps. However, I have explained the process from scratch.
How to make jackfruit curry?
For the best curry, buy tender jackfruit. You can also consider frozen jackfruit. This curry is vegan and gluten-free.
Step - 1 - Prep the jackfruit
If you are chopping at home, apply oil to your palm and knife before holding it or chopping. This helps to keep your hands clean, as the gummy raisin will not stick easily to greasy hands and knives. It will also help in easier chopping. Scrape out the thick skin of it and then dice it into bite-sized pieces. Remove the thick center core as well.
If you can't handle so much of the stress of cutting the whole jackfruit, consider the canned or frozen ones. But the fresh jackfruit is tastier.
Step - 2 - Shallow-fry Jackfruits
Fry the diced jackfruit in oil for 2 - 3 minutes or till it's 50 - 60% cooked and turns golden. Fry in batches if cooking in large batch size.
Alternatively, if you don't want to fry the jackfruits, you can steam them for 5 - 6 minutes.
Step - 3 - Prepare the curry
Ingredients for jackfruit curry paste:
Add all the ingredients below and ยผ cup of water to a blender, and make a smooth paste.
4 - 5 onions + 1 tbsp ginger garlic paste (1 inch ginger + 8 - 10 garlic cloves) + 1 green chilli (optional) + 5 cloves + 4 green cardamoms + 1 inch cinnamon stick + 5 - 7 black pepper + 3 tsp coriander powder + 1 tsp red chilli powder + 1 tsp cumin powder + ยฝ tsp turmeric powder.
Heat oil in a pan/ pot. Add 1 bay leaf. Pour in the curry paste and saute for 6 - 8 minutes or until it releases oil and cooks nicely. Add a little water slowly and gradually as required.
Once the curry paste is cooked, add the pan-fried jackfruit pieces. Add around 1 cup water or vegetable broth and simmer on low heat for 10 - 15 minutes until the jackfruit is soft and tender.
Add ยผ cup of coconut milk to the gravy to even out the spiciness. But that's optional; you can customize your curry and spice level.
In the end, garnish with freshly chopped coriander leaves and serve the delicious meaty jackfruit with rice or flatbreads.
Serving Ideas
You can serve it with steamed rice or cilantro lime rice.
Use the curried jackfruit in your taco stuffing or burrito bowl with a cilantro lime sauce or southwest dressing.
Serve with vegan naan or any flatbreads.
Pair it up with mushroom spaghetti, cajun pasta, or any vegan pasta you love.
Storage and reheat
This stays good for 5 - 7 days in the refrigerator when packed properly. To store, this should be at room temperature. Then transfer the leftover to an air-tight container. Close the lid and refrigerate.
Transfer the desired portion size to a skillet or microwavable container to reheat. In the microwave, heat the curry for 90 seconds, stirring them once. For the stovetop, keep the skillet on fire. Add 2 - 4 tbsp water and simmer for 2 minutes on low flame.
Similar Recipes
Jackfruit Curry (Vegan)
Ingredients
- ยฝ kg Jack fruit Peeled & Diced
- 4 Onion Diced
- 1 tbsp Ginger Garlic Paste 10 - 12 garlic cloves + 1 inch ginger
- 1 Green Chilli or as spicy you need
- ยผ cup Refined oil for pan frying jackfruit & currry sauce
- 1 tsp Salt as per taste
Ground Spices
- 1ยฝ tsp Kashmiri Chilli Powder or paprika ยฝ - tsp
- ยฝ - 1 tsp Red Chili powder or cayenne pepper ยผ tsp
- 2 tbsp Coriander Powder
- ยฝ tsp Turmeric Powder
- ยฝ tsp Garam Masala
- ยฝ tsp cumin powder
Whole Spices
- 1 tsp Cumin seed
- 4 - 6 Black Pepper
- 4 Cloves
- 3 - 4 green cardamom
- 1 Bay Leaf
- 1 tbsp Coriander Leaves
Instructions
- In a blender, blend onions, ginger garlic paste, green chillies, cinnamon stick ยฝ inch, black pepper, cloves, cardamom, and cumin seed into fine paste.
- Heat one frying pan or kadai on high flame.
- Pour 8-10 tbsp oil to it. Shallow fry diced jackfruit or till they are half cooked around 60 - 70% and starts turning golden brown.
- Once done, remove fried jackfruit from pan.
- Remove if excess oil is left or add oil if no oil left in pan after frying.
- Once the oil is hot, add one bay leaf to the pan. Keep the flame on low.
- Then add ยผ teaspoon turmeric powder & ยผ teaspoon chilli powder. This will give rich red color to the gravy.
- Then immediately add onion paste.
- Sautรฉ for 5-6 mins on medium flame till onion paste leaves oil on sides and cooked completely.
- Then add coriander powder, ground cumin, Kashmiri chili, red chili powder, and turmeric powder.
- Stir them all nicely mixing the spices to the onion paste.
- Cook the masala well for 3 - 5 minutes, stirring inbetween.
- Season with salt as per taste.
- Once the masala is cooked and release oil on the sides of the masala, add fried jackfruit to it.
- Toss to coat the jackfruit and sautรฉ for 3 mins on low flame, stirring occasionally in between.
- Then add 1 - 1ยฝ cup of water to it and cover with a lid.
- Simmer for 10 - 15 mins on medium-low heat.
- Check. the doneness of the jackfruit using a fork or knife. If the fork easily moves through it and the jackfruit turns tender enough, that shows it's cooked perfectly.
- Turn off heat when the curry base is also cooked well with nice tender melt in mouth jackfruits.
- Garnish it with freshly chopped coriander leaves. And serve hot.
Notes
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kim Fuhrmann
No protein. No vegetables. You are teaching people to eat badly through your ignorance.
Ipsa Faujdar
Raw Jackfruit is a superfood, a vegetable high in protein, fiber, many vitamins, and minerals.
Jackfruit may be higher in some vitamins and minerals than apples, apricots, bananas, and avocados. For example, it's rich in vitamin C and one of the few fruits that's high in B vitamins.
Jackfruit also contains folate, niacin, riboflavin, potassium, and magnesium.
Carotenoids, the pigments that give jackfruit its yellow color, are high in vitamin A. Like all antioxidants, carotenoids protect cells from damage and help your body work right. They may help prevent diseases like cancer and heart disease, as well as eye problems like cataracts and macular degeneration.
Jackfruit is a superfood with tons of health benefits. This is a green vegetable when in raw form which is nutrition-dense. So this is not bad eating. I will update the post with help benefits of jackfruit for people to understand "JACKFRUITIS A HEALTHY VEGETABLE" for a good food habit.
Shelby
I have never tried jackfruit as I eat meat but I have heard so much about jackfruit being high in potassium and b6. Will def try it however do not want to fry the jackfruit and fried food gives me anxiety.
Ipsa Faujdar
Thank you. You can skip the sauteing jackfruit step and add it directly to the curry gravy.