Beautiful Virgin Islands

Wednesday, Oct 08, 2025

Jackfruit, vegan meat substitute used for pulled pork, tacos, even fish patties, packs a nutritional punch

Versatile and nutritious, jackfruit is soaring in popularity thanks to its ability to mimic certain types of meat. ‘In seven to 10 years, jackfruit will be as popular as beef,’ says one vegan cafe owner.

If you’ve never heard of jackfruit, keep your eyes open: you’ll start noticing it everywhere.

Jackfruit is a very large tropical fruit often used as a meat substitute. It packs some nutritional wallop, and the fact that you can cook, chunk or shred it like chicken or pork makes it a go-to main ingredient in many vegetarian and vegan dishes.

Jackfruit is native to India, and also grows in Southeast Asia, Mexico, the Caribbean and South America. It ranges from 15lb (7kg) to a whopping 70lb (32kg).

For cooking, freshly picked, non-ripe jackfruit is generally used. Once ripe, jackfruit can be used in sweeter dessert preparations.

It is available whole or sliced into more manageable pieces. Unripe, it is green and unyielding; as it ripens, it softens, turns yellow, gets some brown spots and starts to smell fruity.

It is also sold canned, sometimes in brine or syrup. You can find various types in speciality and Asian food stores and, increasingly, traditional supermarkets.

Now, with many people looking for plant-based alternatives to meat, jackfruit’s trajectory is up, up, up.

Now, with many people looking for plant-based alternatives to meat, jackfruit’s trajectory is up, up, up.

Robert Schueller, head of marketing at Los Angeles-based speciality produce company Melissa’s Produce, has noted that upwards trend for several years.

“It was about five years ago that the fruit started to really take off,” he says. “Vegetarians and vegans found out how this fruit could be used as a ‘meat substitute’ for pulled pork sandwiches and as a taco meat.”

As word spread in the US about jackfruit’s versatility, Melissa’s went from selling a few cases a week to thousands of cases a week, Schueller says. Melissa’s also offers plastic containers of jackfruit pods containing just one or two servings.

Jackfruit is also popping up on menus across the US – at vegan and vegetarian restaurants, yes, but also in dishes at more mainstream establishments.

Tomatillo, a Mexican restaurant in Dobbs Ferry, New York, has a quesadilla and taco made with jackfruit nestled in alongside other meaty and vegetarian offerings. In Chicago, Alulu Brewpub serves up vegan Sicilian jackfruit flatbread on a menu alongside in-house cured pork belly.

Angela Means, owner of the vegan Jackfruit Café in Los Angeles, says people are turning to a vegan diet for many reasons, including environmental, health and animal-rights concerns.

“We eat meat because of the texture and the spices. Jackfruit is a great substitute,” Means says. “It’s one of the best choices for us because we can mimic meat. Jackfruit grows in abundance, and it has potassium, fibre, magnesium, lots of nutrients. We put it in tacos and we make sandwiches, like a barbecue pulled ‘pork’.”

Jackfruit Cafe also serves a “fish patty” made of jackfruit combined with seaweed.

“You wouldn’t miss anything – we could give you our taco and you wouldn’t even know it’s vegan,” Means says.

Jackfruit Cafe tries to educate people in its community about jackfruit and alternatives to a meat-eating diet, she says, predicting, “in seven to 10 years, jackfruit will be as popular as beef”.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
×