Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Vegan Jackfruit Carnitas

In all of my recipe research I kept running into recipes for vegan carnitas made out of something called jackfruit. I had never heard of jackfruit before but once I saw the pictures of the finished product it looked sooo much like pork I had to try to make it myself.

I found the cans of young jackfruit in brine at my local Asian Market so I bought two cans. Most recipes suggest using young jackfruit in water because the brine has a strong vinegar taste, but advise that if you can't find the cans of jackfruit in water to use the ones in brine and soak the jackfruit in water for at least an hour to get rid of the vinegar taste. In my recipe I did soak the jackfruit in water for an hour but my finished vegan carnitas still had a strong vinegar taste to them. I will try to find the jackfruit in water because this is definitely a recipe I will make again. However I will make in bigger batches because total prep time was about 4 hours.

Most recipes recommended using a crock pot so that you can cook all of the ingredients for 8 hours but I found a stove top recipe that required two hours of simmering and about 1 hour in the broiler/oven to make the vegan jackfruit carnitas crispy. I had to do the stove top recipe because I do not own a crock pot.

This is what the can of jackfruit looks like:


The ingredients pre-cooking:
The ingredients all mixed in the pan:

Spice blend (flexible, if you don't have a couple of the spices on hand just work with what you've got):

2 tablespoons mild chili powder
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon oregano
1 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt

For Carnitas:
Two 20 oz can of Jackfruit in brine or water. If using the jackfruit in brine make sure to soak the jackfruit in water for at least an hour prior to cooking.
Homemade spice blend (see above)
1 tablespoon cooking oil (I prefer olive oil)
1 small white onion diced (the original recipe said diced in large pieces but after making the recipe, I would do the onions diced in small pieces)
1 teaspoon lime juice
4 cloves garlic, minced
One 12 oz can of mild salsa verde

Directions:
Add the spice blend to the drained jackfruit and make sure that each piece of jackfruit is well coated with the spice blend (do this in a bowl prior to cooking). You can use a masher to mash in the spice blend and to mash the jackfruit. The jackfruit will start to disintegrate but this is what makes it look like pork.
In heated pan with olive oil mix in the diced onions, the coated jackfruit with the spice blend, the lime juice and the minced garlic
Sautee the above ingredients for about 5 minutes on high heat
Then add the 12 oz can of mild salsa verde and reduce heat to the lowest possible setting and simmer for two hours
Let stand overnight and when ready to eat place in oven for at least an hour to make the "carnitas" crispy

Enjoy in a taco, a burrito, a salad, or any recipe where you would enjoy carnitas.

Finished product:


Happy eating!

-V 



























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