Sweet and Sour Jackfruit
This one is a proper weeknight winner and we genuinely make it on rotation. Sweet, tangy, sticky sauce, chewy jackfruit, loads of veg and that classic takeaway flavour you crave but made at home in about 35 minutes. The pineapple gives it this gorgeous natural sweetness that balances the vinegar perfectly, and the jackfruit soaks everything up so well it almost feels like you're eating something naughty. Trust us, once you've made this you'll wonder why you ever ordered the takeaway version.
Before You Start
- Frying pan
- Wok
- Bowls for mixing
- Colander or sieve (to strain pineapple)
- Rice cooked according to package instructions (or 1x 250g bag microwaveable rice)
Ingredients
- 3 ½ tbsp rice vinegar
- 3 tbsp brown sugar
- 2 tbsp toasted sesame oil
- 1 tbsp cornflour
- The juice of 1 x 400g can of tinned pineapple
- 1 red onion
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 2 tbsp ketchup
- 2 inches of ginger
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- vegetable oil for frying
- 1 tbsp water
- 1 400g tin of pineapple
- 1 green pepper
- 125g cornflour
- 1 tsp Chinese 5 spice
- 130ml water
- 2 x 400g can(s) of jackfruit
- reserved spring onion slices
- pinch of sesame seeds
- 250g basmati rice cooked - or 1x 250g bag of microwaveable rice
- 1 spring onion
Method
Make your sweet and sour sauce
- Strain the pineapple from the tin, and add the juice and remaining sauce ingredients into a bowl
- Mix well to combine until the sugar is dissolved
Prep your veg and rice
- Chop the strained pineapple into large bite-size chunks
- Deseed and chop the pepper into large bite-size chunks
- Peel and chop the red onion into large bite-size chunks
- Peel and rough chop the ginger
- Finely slice the spring onion (keep aside as a final garnish)
- Cook rice according to package instructions
Make the crispy jackfruit coating
- Drain the jackfruit from the tin and halve any particularly large pieces so everything is roughly the same size
- In a bowl, mix together the cornflour, Chinese five spice, onion and garlic powder and water | Mix together until it forms a thick-ish creamy consistency
- Stir in the larger chunks of jackfruit until it’s all well coated (discard any really thin stringy bits)
Fry your jackfruit
- Heat the frying pan with enough vegetable oil to coat the base of the frying pan by around 2cm, over medium heat
- Add the coated jackfruit pieces with a bit of the batter poured over, and fry until crispy
- Keep mixing the batter in the pan around the jackfruit every so often, so that it coats all the jackfruit pieces as they crisp up
- Set aside on kitchen paper to drain excess oil
Finish your stir-fry
- Heat your sesame oil over a wok on medium-high heat
- Add the red onion, ginger, green pepper and fry until softened
- Add the sweet and sour sauce, and stir well to coat all the vegetables
- Add the pineapple chunks
- Stir and simmer the sauce until it makes a delicious sticky sauce
- Add the fried jackfruit and toss in the sauce to coat
- Serve immediately with rice and garnish with the sliced spring onions and sesame seeds
Tips & Variations
- Get the jackfruit right: Make sure you're using young green jackfruit in brine or water, not the ripe stuff in syrup. Drain it well and squeeze out any excess liquid before cooking so it crisps up nicely in the pan.
- Sauce thickness: If your sauce isn't thickening up the way you'd like, just mix a small teaspoon of cornflour with a splash of cold water and stir it in. It'll come together really quickly.
- Make it spicy: We love adding a good pinch of chilli flakes or a drizzle of sriracha at the end if you want a bit of heat to cut through the sweetness. Henry always does this.
Why This Works
The trick here is using the pineapple juice straight from the tin as the base of your sauce. It gives you that sweet and sour depth without having to do anything complicated, and it means nothing goes to waste. Letting the jackfruit sit in the sauce long enough to really absorb it is the other big one. Don't rush that step and you'll be rewarded with something seriously good.