Orange ‘Chicken’ Gone Vegan

I’m really happy to see that there are more and more meat alternatives available nowadays. What I don’t like that much is that most of them are heavily processed and come with a long list of ingredients, gluten being one of them. Yes, I’m guilty, I use them too from time to time. My all-time favorite meat substitute though is young jackfruit. I use the completely unseasoned version with no added ingredients. This is the place where I usually start raving about jackfruit, how good it is, how healthy, how much fiber, calcium, and iron it contains but I’m not going to do that today – well, maybe just a little. You’ve got to try it yourself, and this orange ‘chicken’ will help you fall in love with it!

You will need:

• blender or hand blender

Ingredients:

• one 7 oz (200 g) package unseasoned young jackfruit pieces (I use Edward & Sons)
• 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

For the orange sauce:

• 1/4 cup (60 ml) freshly squeezed orange juice
• 1 Tbsp water
• 7 pitted, dried dates
• 3/4 tsp Celtic sea salt
• 1/2 tsp sweet paprika
• 1 inch piece fresh turmeric, rinsed and brushed or 1/4 tsp ground turmeric powder

To top with (all optional but delicious and very pretty):

• some parsley, minced
• sprouts galore
• some crushed red pepper (if you like it spicy)
• some orange slices

Preparation:

Place all the orange sauce ingredients into your blender or, if you use a hand blender, into a high, narrow container that you can cover. Really make sure to cover the opening because otherwise it’ll be messy. Blend until you have a smooth, lump free, thick sauce. This takes less than a minute.

Preheat a medium size sauce pan over medium heat. Add olive oil, then jackfruit pieces and stir-fry for about 7 minutes until nicely browned.

Before frying:

After frying:

Now pour the orange sauce over the jackfruit into the pan. Try to catch all of the sauce by scraping out the container.

Cook for another 3 minutes while stirring frequently. Most of the liquid will be absorbed or has evaporated by then. I added some minced parsley here, but that is optional.

Serve warm with lots of greens as a side dish or on top of a salad. Enjoy!

Notes:

• This orange ‘chicken’ is a perfect addition to many Chinese or Thai dishes.
• I tend to leave the jackfruit pieces as intact as possible. You can easily shred them with a fork, if you prefer that.