Green Jackfruit Taquitos

Growing up with young green jackfruit as part of a vegetarian diet, I never gave it much thought, never felt it was supposed to be exotic or that it had the potential to stand in for meat. It was a fantastic element to be relished on its own right, especially in south Indian style cuisine that I was nurtured on.

There are quite a few jackfruit recipes shared here so far, and I've been finding ways to use them in more unconventional dishes as well.

Jackfruit is quite popular in Asian cuisine, especially in Indian cuisine. Not just the ripe fruit used for desserts, and chips, but particularly the young green jackfruit that is treated as a vegetable.

My mom's specialty is "Idi Chakkai" - a Palakkad term for smashed young green jackfruit dish flavored with coconut and chilies, and tempered with mustard seeds and curry leaves. I could not have enough of it when I was young.

Jackfruit seed - nicknamed "jacknut" - is another favorite at home, quite a special treat, even though tons of these get discarded every jackfruit season.

The raw green jackfruit when smashed into coarse chunks have the texture of shredded chicken. Being mild in flavor, these raw green jackfruit chunks lend themselves to a variety of deep flavoring, and quite easily make a good meat imitator.

In local Asian grocery stores, various brands of canned young green jackfruit are available at a reasonable price. I prefer the ones canned in water rather than in brine. But, the brined ones are not too salty so they work well in savory dishes.

I've sauteed them with a light coating of barbecue sauce and used them as pizza toppings, and in Sloppy Joes.

In this taquitos recipe, the green jackfruit is flavored with Taco Seasoning and used as a filling with beans and cheese to make scrumptious taquitos.

Simply add beans cheese and seasoned green jackfruit into a corn tortilla, roll it up and bake it, or pan fry it.