Jackfruit on my plate

The humble jackfruit is being used world over as a sustainable alternative for flour, meat, even cocoa and chocolate. It started with the veganism movement in the West when jackfruit with its meaty texture became a replacement to real meat. This mock-meat revolution brought a fresh perspective to the humble fruit. The sudden craze clubbed with the nutritional value and abundant availability led to many experiments with the fruit.

Jackfruit Flour

Jackfruit flour has world over become a common and nutritious replacement of wheat flour. It is neutral in flavor and has good binding properties, which makes it suitable for everything from dumplings to idlis and rotis, dumplings to dosas. The flour is now used widely as gluten free option in restaurants and commercial kitchens. Recent studies claim that jackfruit flour can also effectively keep blood sugar in check and supply adequate fiber. “If replaced in rice or chapati, a daily dose of 30 grams of jackfruit flour can significantly bring down blood sugar levels in a diabetes patient,” James Jacob of Jackfruit 365, who made jackfruit flour mainstream and is known as the Jackfruit Man of India tells us. The flour his company makes uses both seeds and flesh of green jackfruit, this ensures that protein and fiber derived from the fruit replaces the carbohydrate in the regular flour. “This,” says Jacob, “means you get more nutrition per serving of your staples.”

Jackfruit Meat

When chef Garima Arora won a Michelin Star for her restaurant Gaa, it was her raw jackfruit preparation that got the maximum attention. While raw jackfruits that had always been cooking in Indian kitchens the fame got it worldwide recognition and in just a few months hence has become a craze. Jackfruit meat, essentially the flesh of jackfruit, is low in calorific value and fat content and is a great source of fiber; that the flesh is fibrous and resembles the texture of meat only helps. “Jackfruit is touted as a superfood worldwide due to its nutritional superpower, which gives it that edge over other mock meats,” informs Sairaj Dhondh, CEO and founder of Wakao Foods, a company that offers jackfruit meat packed and ready to use. Jack-meat can be a great base for any recipe because it can easily imbibe different flavors; it also is a cleaner and greener source of protein due to its low carbon footprint.

Jackfruit Chocolate

The compounds found in jackfruit seed can produce aromas similar to processed cocoa beans. Some researchers have made chocolate with dried jackfruit seed powder and the result, they claim, is very similar to chocolate made with 100% cocoa. Of every fruit used in jackfruit processing units, thousands of seeds pile up as bio waste. This wastage led Campco Ltd. to try roasting and grinding jackfruit seeds. In terms of taste, flavor and miscibility with milk, turned out to be perfect. They are now looking at nutritional reports to check feasibility of adding it to their beverage mix, Winner. Many other companies are working with having jackfruit in chocolate – the dried pulp as a replacement of fruit and seed powder as replacement of cocoa although just a percentage. “Research shows that the jackfruit seed is highly nutrient rich. It has 17 out of 21 amino acids, and is one of the best plant based protein,” says Jacob, “which means if we use this is as a chocolate replacement, or in a drink the nutritional value of the bar can go really high.” This he asserts can also take care of nutritional needs in children. And how soon can we get that? “The work is on, and we should have an update soon.” He signs off.

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