What is Jackfruit? Everything You Need to Know About This Odd Yet Nutritious and Sustainable Food
Have you heard of jackfruit? One tree can produce up to three tons of food from this huge and utterly unique fruit per year, providing an almost miraculous source of nourishment for people living in tropical countries!
Jackfruit is also increasingly being used in other parts of the world, particularly in the U.S., as a plant-based meat alternative because the young, unripe fruits soak up flavor well and have a stringy, “meat-like” texture when cooked.
You may have seen it popping up in stores and on menus — for example, jackfruit tacos and BBQ sandwiches are popular ways to prepare it.
But what do you need to know about this food? And should it be something you look for and use in your own cooking?
Jackfruit is a species of tree in the fig, mulberry, and breadfruit family.
The plant originated in southwest India, where it grows abundantly. And then, it spread to other parts of India, southeast Asia, the East Indies, the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia.
It also grows in Africa and is relatively popular in Brazil and Suriname as well. Jackfruit trees typically grow in tropical and near-tropical conditions, but they can also be produced in Florida,Hawaii, and Australia.
The largest tree-borne fruit in the world, jackfruit can weigh up to 100 pounds and grow up to three feet long. (Though, the average size of the fruit is 10 to 25 pounds.)
Its huge trees produce massive, green, oblong fruits with a bumpy, fleshy exterior. On the inside, it contains many pale-yellow, plump bulbs, which are edible and joined at the core. The seeds can also be cooked, eaten on their own, or ground into flour.
A ripe, unopened fruit has a strong, unpleasant odor. But the pulp of the opened fruit smells sweet.
What Does Jackfruit Taste Like?
Eaten ripe and raw, the taste of jackfruit is sweet and similar to pineapple, mango, and banana.
When it’s unripe, it has more of a neutral flavor, like a potato, and works well in savory dishes
Jackfruit Nutrition
Eating jackfruit isn’t only a fun and meatless way to add something new to your usual meals. It’s also packed with nutrients, including fiber and antioxidants.
And the benefits of this tropical fruit are impressive. One researcher even called it a “miracle” food because it provides so many nutrients and calories.
Two cups contain 310 calories and boast the following lineup of vitamins and minerals:
Fiber: 6 grams
Protein: 5.6 grams
Vitamin A: 20% of Recommended Daily Intake (RDI)
Vitamin C: 36% of RDI
Riboflavin: 22% of RDI
Magnesium: 30% of RDI
Potassium: 28% of RDI
Copper: 30% of RDI
Manganese: 32% of RDI
The seeds are especially nutritious. They are high in protein, potassium, calcium, and iron.
The Benefits of Jackfruit for Your Body
Here are eight ways jackfruit may benefit your health:
Good for your immune system. Jackfruit contains moderate levels of vitamin C, an antioxidant which helps your body fight free radicals and protects you from colds and other illnesses.
Improve your digestion. Jackfruit is packed with fiber, which helps improve digestion and prevent constipation.
May help prevent cancer. Jackfruit contains phytonutrients, such as lignans, isoflavones, and saponins, which have anti-cancer properties. It also contains many carotenoids, which have been found to help protect against cancer.
Boost your energy levels. Jackfruit has B vitamins, particularly vitamin B6. And it’s high in complex carbs which can giveyou a boost of energy, without throwing your blood sugar levels out of whack. In fact, clinical trials conducted at Sydney University’s Glycemic Index Research Service have found that raw jackfruit has a lower glycemic load (increase in sugar/blood glucose level) than wheat or rice.
Help maintain blood pressure and heart health. It also has moderate levels of potassium, which helps regulate blood pressure and reduce the risk of stroke and heart attack.
Support healthy vision. Jackfruit has vitamin A, as well as beta-carotene, lutein, and zeaxanthin, which helpsimprove vision and protects eye health.
Improves skin health and reduces aging. The water content in the fruit helps keep your skin moisturized and youthful. And the antioxidants help slow the aging process.
Good for bone health. It’s also high in calcium, whichstrengthens and helps promote healthy bones. The right amount of magnesium helps with the absorption of calcium. And the high amount of potassium helps decrease the loss of calcium.
A Sustainable Choice for a Growing World
With its huge size, nutrient density, and crowd-pleasing taste, jackfruit could be one of the most promising solutions for sustainably feeding the world.
Jackfruit could be one of the most promising solutions for sustainably feeding the world.
Amazingly, one jackfruit tree can grow about 100 to 200 fruits in a year.
Compared to the intensive land and water resources necessary to produce meat, jackfruit is far more efficient as a global food source.
Danielle Nierenberg, president of Food Tank, which focuses on sustainable agriculture, told The Guardian this about jackfruit:
“It is easy to grow. It survives pests and diseases and high temperatures. It is drought-resistant. […] It achieves what farmers need in food production when facing a lot of challenges under climate change.“
Researchers are also aiming to increase jackfruit consumption in India, where the food has fallen out of favor and often goes to waste. Making it a favorite staple food again could help feed millions of peoplewho are facing food insecurity.
Where to Find It
You may be able to find jackfruit as a whole fruit, sliced into sections, packed into cans, dried, frozen, or made into other products.
While your average chain grocer (outside of the tropics) may not sell jackfruit fresh, demand is rising fast and many stores are starting to sell it.
Specialty markets, such as Whole Foods and Sprouts Farmers Markets, will be more likely to have the fruit, or they may be able to order it for you. You can also look at your local Asian, Indian, or Caribbean food stores or find jackfruit products online.
Other names for jackfruit include jaca or chakka (in India), kathal (in Bangladesh), kanun (Thailand), nagka (in Malaysia) or “tree mutton” in Bengali.
Keep this in mind: Whole jackfruits sold in stores are on the sweeter side — versus the canned varieties, which are usually blander.
Canned Jackfruit
Most commonly, the fruit comes in a can and is labeled “young” and “green” — namely because the younger it is, the less sweet it will be.
Canned jackfruit is usually packed with brine, syrup, or water (opt for the brine to avoid added sugars — although you may want to be mindful of the sodium content — or the water if you can find it), and then drain it and cook it any way you want.
So when shopping for canned jackfruit, you may want to look for “young green jackfruit packed in brine”(or salted water) on the label. Or you may be able to find “young jackfruit in water.”
Packaged Products Make Eating It Easy
Jackfruit is also becoming more available through packaged products.
Upton’s Naturals is sold widely (including online from Thrive Market). The company makes jackfruit in a variety of flavors, such as bar-b-que, chili lime carnitas, Thai curry, sweet & smoky, sriracha, and original flavors.
The Jackfruit Company — whose mission is to transform world health, farmer’s livelihoods, and humanity’s eco-footprint for the better — is another option. The company makes an array of jackfruit products with flavors like curry, teriyaki, tex-mex, lightly seasoned, lemon-garlic and bbq, plus prepared bowls, sweet ripe jackfruit, and a “naked jackfruit” product designed for food service.
You may also be able to find dehydrated chips, noodles, powder and other products.
How to Cut It
iStock.com/supit_ch
The idea of cutting into a massive, thick-skinned orb can be intimidating. But it’s doable if you’re willing to put in the work.
Here’s a quick step-by-step video to help you prepare this bulbous fruit.
When selecting a fruit, remember this: Jackfruit is green when unripe, and then, it turns light brown and has a strong fragrance when ripe.
(Editor’s Note: All parts of the jackfruit contain a sticky, white latex “sap,” which can be used as an adhesive. You may want to use gloves or coat hands, knives, and work surfaces with vegetable oil prior to preparation and lay newspaper down if you try to cut into it. And a warning: There have been documented cases of anaphylaxis in people allergic to latex, so you may want to avoid this food if you have a latex allergy or are sensitive to latex.)
How to Cook It
Much like tofu, unripe jackfruit absorbs the flavors it cooks but doesn’t have much flavor on its own. You can add it to a variety of dishes, such as curries, stir-fry’s, and chili, as well as soups, salads, and bowls.
If you’re looking to cook plain, canned jackfruit, the process varies depending on the different recipes.
Usually, you want to start by draining the fruit, and then cooking it until it’s easy to shred, creating a meat-like consistency.
If you want to use jackfruit as a meat alternative, an important thing to consider is that it’s much lower in protein than other meat alternatives — with only about three grams of protein per cup (though this is more protein than most other fruits). So you may want to pair it with protein-rich foods, such as lentils or beans.
Creative and Delicious Jackfruit Recipes
Here are six recipes for using this unique fruit:
BBQ Jackfruit
This recipe is a perfect choice for your summer BBQ party! By cooking jackfruit with your favorite barbeque sauce, it’s an easy choice that is sure to please eaters of every persuasion.
Jackfruit Carnitas Tacos
Whether it’s Taco Tuesday or any other day of the week, tacos are always a winning dish. This recipe uses orange for a flavor pop and pairs the tacos with fresh, healthy add-ons like avocado and cilantro.
Photo Courtesy of The Fitnessista
Easy Jackfruit Curry
Made with a variety of spices, this dish is full of flavor for an appetizing meal served with quinoa, rice, or other grains. You can leave out the oil and use water instead to make this recipe oil-free.
Jackfruit “Crab” Cakes
This easy-to-make recipe is surprisingly good and similar in texture to the real thing. You can make these cakes without oil if you want (just put them on a cookie sheet, drizzle with lemon juice, and bake in a 375° oven for approximately 10 minutes on each side, or until they’re golden brown and firm to the touch).
Buffalo Jackfruit Dip
Having a party? Here’s the perfect snack. This spicy dip uses jackfruit as a replacement for more traditional chicken versions, and the end result is a healthier-but-still-delicious treat.
Mu Shu Jackfruit Lettuce Wraps
Light and airy, this Asian dish uses traditional spices to create a flavorful end result. You can eat these lettuce wraps hot or cold — they’re tasty either way!
The Final Word on Jackfruit
Jackfruit can be a nutritious and sustainable food that can provide important nourishment in tropical communities. And it offers an interesting way to expand culinary horizons around the world.
You can eat the whole fruit as is or choose products made with young jackfruits, like canned products. But like most foods, eating jackfruit closest to its whole form will give you the most health benefits.
As more people move away from animal products in the U.S. and around the world, jackfruit, with its “meaty” texture, is another, more sustainable (and often less processed) option for plant-based meat alternatives.
Overall, jackfruit can be a healthy and affordable local food option if you live in the tropics. But for those of us in more northern climates, it has to be imported. At Food Revolution Network, we’re big fans of local food. But if we’re going to import anything, it might as well be foods that are nutritious and environmentally friendly to grow.
So unless you live in a region where it grows, jackfruit is not likely to become a staple food for you. But it can be an excellent occasional ingredient for creative meals — and it might even help feed the world.
Tell us in the comments:
Now that you know, what is jackfruit, what do you think about it?
Have you eaten jackfruit? How? And what did you think?
Coronavirus Live Updates: Tangled Border Deals Replace Frictionless Travel
The U.S. Supreme Court rejected a California church’s challenge to attendance limits. And the E.U. said it would continue to back the W.H.O. after President Trump announced the U.S. was ending its relationship with the health agency.
A person who attended crowded Memorial Day pool parties at Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri has tested positive for the coronavirus, health officials said.
Domino Park in Brooklyn on Monday.Credit...Sarah Blesener for The New York Times
Major U.S. cities are edging back to normalcy. The world is full of cautionary tales.
Many of the most populous cities in the United States moved cautiously toward reopening key businesses on Friday.
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York said he expected New York City, where more than 20,000 people have diedfrom the virus, to meet several benchmarks that would allow retail stores to open for curbside or in-store pickup, as well as restarting nonessential construction and manufacturing. As many as 400,000 people could go back to work in that initial phase.
Other major cities that have faced death and economic calamity, like Washington and Los Angeles, also announced plans to continue their reopenings by allowing restaurants, hair salons and barbershops to open their doors, with new safety guidelines
Mr. Cuomo joins many officials around the world in deciding that the benefits of reviving economies outweigh the risks of new infections. But as the global coronavirus caseload approaches six million, other countries are learning that the risks don’t vanish overnight:
In South Korea, which successfully brought an early outbreak to heel, more than 800 schools have either closed their doors to students or pushed back reopening. The government also closed museums, parks and many other public facilities in the Seoul area on Friday.
In Canada, a growing number of shop workers are back on the job. But the return to work is likely to be uneasy for many people, particularly those in hard-hit places like nursing homes and meatpacking plants.
In Iraq, all travel between provinces has been stopped for a second time. Baghdad was almost completely still on Friday, and stay-at-home orders were enforced by neighborhood blockades
In Israel, where schools reopened weeks ago, more than 100 new cases were reported on Friday, the level that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had warned would prompt the reinstatement of a strict lockdown.
In Britain, where from Monday more outdoor social gatherings will be permitted and some schools are scheduled to reopen, at least three members of the government’s top scientific advisory panel have warned publicly against relaxing restrictions.
If the reopening of offices, restaurants and other public places has seemed dizzying, the rules on travel between nations are shaping up to be bewildering.
Travel bubbles and airline corridors to allow free movement between certain cities or countries, quarantines and an assortment of other measures add up to a puzzle for even the most intrepid traveler.
Nowhere are the logistical challenges more daunting than in Europe, where the pandemic brought a sudden return of borders between the 26 countries that are part of the so-called Schengen zone. Optimistic pronouncements about easing restrictions for summer travelers have run into the reality of a patchwork of policies.
It would be great if all this could be compressed into something easy to understand, but it is a very complex picture,” said Adalbert Jahnz, a spokesman for home affairs, migration and citizenship at the European Commission, the executive branch of the European Union.
For instance, Bulgaria, Serbia and Greece are expected to open borders to each other on June 1. Greece, desperate to save its tourism industry, also released an expanded list on Friday of 29 countries from which it will allow travel starting June 15.
The Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia have started implementing a similar arrangement.
France, Germany and other West European nations have talked about easing border controls to other E.U. member states on June 15, the day the European Commission’s guidance calling for the suspension of nonessential travel into the E.U. will expire.
Travel from outside the bloc may prove an even more difficult question.
If the European border-free zone is restored, then when one country lets in travelers from outside, it means that every country has effectively done so.
The European Commission, which can only offer guidance, is still discussing what posture to take. But officials said that a middle position — more targeted restrictions on countries based on criteria like virus caseloads — was unlikely to be attractive, because it would create a whole set of scientific, diplomatic and political challenges.
Countries elsewhere are also reviewing travel restrictions. Hong Kong says it will allow airline passengers to transit through its airport from Monday, after suspending the service on March 25. But all passengers connecting to other flights through Hong Kong International Airport will be subject to coronavirus screening, including temperature checks, and they risk being placed into a 14-day government quarantine if they show a high temperature and test positive for Covid-19.
Coronavirus Live Updates: C.D.C. Suggests Radical Changes to the American Office Space
New federal guidance on how to safely reopen businesses would transform the corporate work experience. Epicenters of the pandemic shift both across the U.S. and around the world. Day cares are reopening, leaving parents with tough choices.
RIGHT NOW
At least 101,000 people in the United States have died from the coronavirus, and more than 1.7 million have been infected, according to a New York Times database.
Protective barriers were installed between cubicles at the infection prevention division of the University of California, Irvine.Credit...Alex Welsh for The New York Times
As the C.D.C. recommends workplace changes, millions of the unemployed have more immediate concerns.
Upon arriving at work, employees should get a temperature and symptom check.
Inside the office, desks should be six feet apart. If that isn’t possible, employers should consider erecting plastic shields around them.
If followed, the guidelines would lead to a far-reaching remaking of the corporate work experience. They even upend years of advice on commuting, urging people to drive to work by themselves, instead of taking mass transportation or car-pooling, to avoid potential exposure to the virus.
The multitrillion-dollar patchwork of federal and state programs hasn’t kept bills from piling up or prevented long lines at food banks. But it has mitigated the damage. Now the expiration of those programs represents a cliff that individuals and the economy are hurtling toward.
The $1,200 checks sent to most households are long gone, at least for those who needed them most, with little imminent prospect for a second round. The lending program that helped millions of small businesses keep workers on the payroll will wind down if Congress does not extend it. Eviction moratoriums that are keeping people in their homes are expiring in many cities.
And the $600 per week in extra unemployment benefits that has allowed tens of millions of laid-off workers to pay rent and buy groceries will expire at the end of July.
new hot spots emerge, the pandemic may be entering another phase.
Downtown Los Angeles this month.
Credit..Philip Cheung for The New York TimesThe most basic way to track the progress of any outbreak is by seeing how many new cases and deaths are reported in a given area each day. And in the United States, falling numbers in some of the hardest-hit places are encouraging. Totals for the countryhave been on a downward curve, and in former hot spots like New York and New Jersey, the counts appear to have peaked.
But infections and deaths are rising in more than a dozen states, an ominous sign that the pandemic may be entering a new phase.
In metropolitan areas like Fayetteville, Ark.; Yuma, Ariz.; and Roanoke and Charlottesville, Va., data show new highs may be only days or weeks away.
The pace is quickening worldwide, too. According to data compiled by The New York Times, nearly 700,000 new known infections have been reported just in the past week.
Outbreaks have accelerated especially sharply in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and Peru, leading the World Health Organization to say on Tuesday that it considered the Americas to be the new center of the pandemic.
And although much of the Middle East seemed to avert early catastrophe even as the virus ravaged Iran, case counts have been swelling in Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Reported cases are not perfect measures to chart the spread of the virus because they depend on how much testing is done. Death counts are less dependent on testing, though official numbers are typically undercounts. Both counts, though, can indicate how the outbreak is evolving, especially in places where lockdown rules are easing or where governments have been ineffective at slowing the spread, and offer early clues about new hot spots.
That is why Wisconsin is being closely monitored. Two weeks ago, the conservative majority on the State Supreme Court overturned that state’s stay-at-home order, effectively removing the most serious restrictions on residents.
It can take several weeks after changes in behavior — like the increased movement and interactions associated with the end of a stay-at-home order — for the effect on transmissions to be reflected in the data. In Wisconsin, there were indications that the virus was still spreading before the order was lifted. But in the weeks since restrictions were overturned, the case numbers have continued to grow.
“It worries us,” said Dr. Nasia Safdar, the medical director for infection prevention at the University of Wisconsin Hospital in Madison. “We wonder if this is a trend in an unfavorable direction.”
![](data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,<svg height="1533px" width="2300px" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" version="1.1"/>)
![](data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,<svg height="1294px" width="2300px" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" version="1.1"/>)
