For A Meaty-Tasting Jackfruit, Break Out The Slow Cooker

A useful tip for anyone transitioning to plant-based or plant-forward diets is to recreate dishes you already know and love. It exposes home cooks and novices to plant-based eating to simple, yet innovative culinary techniques to showcase different produce as the stars of the plate, rather than being relegated to a side dish. In the realm of plant-based recipes, jackfruit has emerged as a versatile stand-in for meats in classic comfort foods like chicken nuggets, fish and chips, and pulled pork.

The trick to a succulent, tender jackfruit is to bust out the slow cooker, which does most of the heavy lifting to transform young, unripe jackfruit into a meaty sensation. If you're using canned jackfruit, make sure to drain out all the brine, pat the pieces dry, and sauté on a skillet until nicely charred before combining all the ingredients into the slow cooker. The charred browned bits will infuse a bolder flavor to your jackfruit dish, be it plant-based carnitas, pot roast, or BBQ pulled pork.

Once all the ingredients are combined in a slow cooker, its enclosed chamber creates an optimum environment to gradually, and evenly braise the jackfruit, keeping the fruit moist while allowing it to absorb the rich flavors of the seasoned mixture of your choice. The prolonged cooking time also helps develop more complex flavors as the aromatic spices, seasonings, and other ingredients have time to fully break down and infuse the tender pieces of jackfruit with deep, savory notes, making for a satisfying replacement for shredded meat.

Creating convincing animal-free renditions of conventional dishes that center on animal-based meat is an art. The key lies in replicating the familiar flavors and textures, which can be accomplished with savvy preparation techniques and perfecting the seasonings responsible for imparting any dish's quintessential flavors. It's important to start by choosing produce with a naturally meat-like texture, such as mushrooms, eggplant, hearts of palm, or vegetables like carrots and cauliflower that can be cooked and marinated in a way to recreate the textures of animal-based meat.

Whether you're turning mushrooms into "chicken," eggplant into "steak," or carrots into "lox," marinating the vegetables in a marinade seasoned with the usual suspects that you would use to season animal proteins is crucial to evoking the nostalgic taste of animal-based dishes. Cooking techniques like scoring mushrooms, which increases the surface area to absorb flavors, and renders a meatier texture, or coating cauliflower florets in a spiced batter before breading and frying for a crispy "chicken-like" exterior, are creative hacks you can experiment with as well. Consider plating the dish with protein-rich elements like cooked legumes, dips like hummus, or a tahini-based ranch that can boost the protein content for a satisfying, delicious, plant-powered meal.