Blanquette is my grandmother's signature dish, it's probably the dish she makes the most often, along with caramel rice pudding, beef stew, potato fries, and apple pie. Officially, a blanquette refers to a meat stew, usually veal, cooked in a white creamy sauce flavored with herbs, white wine, and other aromatics like onions and optionally carrots, potatoes, and mushrooms. According to my grandmother, traditional blanquette doesn't contain carrots, but we are not doing the traditional one here!
As a kid, I never liked meat stews. I'm not sure why but anything cooked in a Dutch oven or cocotte was unappetizing to me. Well, I'm happy things have changed since then! I still don't eat meat stew, okay? But I'm loving Dutch ovens. Yes, they are heavy, but slow cooked food is really the best, especially when it's cozy like this jackfruit blanquette.
To give this stew a meaty texture I went with jackfruit, which has the perfect tender texture. The thing is, jackfruit is pretty bland if not well seasoned. So first, we marinate it in almond butter, toasted sesame oil, nutritional yeast, and some spices to give it a rich flavor.
Here's a quick tip: you don't want to mash the jackfruit or stir the stew too often, otherwise it will pull apart and your blanquette will have a fibrous texture. You want whole pieces of jackfruit! Now if you don't have access to jackfruit, or simply want more protein, I suggest using tofu or tempeh.
Next, we have the aromatics: white wine, onion studded with cloves, and a bouquet garni (thyme sprigs and bay leaves). For the veggies, I went with the basic carrots, potatoes, and mushrooms. Hearty vegetables for a comforting dish.
As the blanquette slowly cooks, the broth absorbs the flavors of the jackfruit marinade, white wine, and herbs.
Once your carrots and potatoes are cooked, it's time to stir in the cashew cream. It consists of soaked cashews blended with yogurt and lemon juice to give it some tanginess. Do not omit the cashew cream, it's the key to a thick and creamy sauce.
You can serve this blanquette with rice, quinoa, or pasta. It is always best served the same day as the sauce has the tendency to thicken as it cools. To reheat, simply add a bit more water until you get a creamy consistency.
This comforting jackfruit blanquette makes the perfect dinner to have on cold winter nights. It's rich, creamy, and has that stick-to-your-ribs factor.
Let me know in the comments if you try this recipe!
Jackfruit Blanquette
Ingredients
- 2 20-ounces can young jackfruit
- ¼ cup almond butter or cashew butter
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1 teaspoon nutritional yeast
- ¼ teaspoon ground cumin
- ⅛ teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon soy sauce
- 2 tablespoon water
- ¾ cup white wine
- 2 cups water
- 2 carrots peeled and sliced (½-inch thick)
- 3 small potatoes peeled and chopped
- 4 white button mushrooms quartered
- 1 onion poked with 8 cloves
- 4 bay leaves
- 2 thyme sprigs
- ½ teaspoon salt
Cashew Cream
- ½ cup raw cashews soaked overnight
- ¼ cup water
- 3 tablespoon vegan yogurt
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
Instructions
- Start with the jackfruit: Drain and rinse it. Cut off the hard core parts and discard. Do not pull apart the jackfruit, keep the whole pieces, you don't want to make shredded jackfruit. Transfer to a small baking dish, or mixing bowl, and set aside.
- In a small bowl, mix together the almond butter, sesame oil, nutritional yeast, ground cumin, soy sauce, and water. Pour over the jackfruit pieces and stir gently to coat. Let marinate at least 15 minutes.
- Heat a tablespoon of oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat. Once hot, add the marinated jackfruit and cook for 2 minutes, stirring regularly to make sure it doesn't stick to the bottom.
- Pour the white wine and water over the jackfruit.
- Add the sliced carrots, potatoes, mushrooms, onion, bay leaves, thyme sprigs, and salt. Cover and let simmer over low-medium heat for about 1 and ½ hour, checking from time to time to make sure nothing sticks to the bottom.
- Remove the onion, bay leaves, and thyme sprigs and discard. Then, stir in the cashew cream and carefully mix to combine. You don't want to stir too much or the jackfruit will pull a part and you will end up with a fibrous texture. You want to keep whole pieces of jackfruit.
- Serve immediately over rice or quinoa. This jackfruit blanquette will keep for up to 3 days in the refrigerator. Reheat gently on the stove and add water as needed to make the sauce creamy again.
Cashew Cream
- Drain the cashews. Add all the cashew cream ingredients to the bowl of a blender and blend on high speed for 1 minute, or until smooth, scraping down the sides if needed. You should get a thick and smooth cream with a subtle tanginess.
Notes
- If you don't have jackfruit, use 2 cups diced firm tofu or tempeh. The texture will be different but it's still delicious!
Oh, man!!! Thomas! Does this recipe ever look WONDERFUL! I actually have 3 cans of Organic Jackfruit (in brine) already in my pantry, and I cannot WAIT to try this as soon as I get through re-testing a few of my (cookbook project) recipes! (I'm TRYING to prioritize and stay disciplined and FINISH this project, instead of just talking about it for so long!) I have only experimented with jackfruit ONCE (with one of my own recipes), and your admonition to be "gentle" in stirring, and try not to break apart or shred the chunks of jackfruit is SOOOOO right on the mark, at least with this variety of canned jackfruit (Native Forest brand). In my experiment, which was intended to be a "CHUNKY" beefy barbeque sandwich based on my mother's (OUT OF THIS WORLD!) original recipe she used to make with real beef), it became a "mush" from WAAAY too much stirring. It still tasted GREAT, and VERY reminiscent of my mother's recipe, but the texture was all wrong. I'm sure it'd be similar with your Blanquette recipe here. The chunks of canned jackfruit appear to be QUITE soft, and I'm wondering if using a FRESH jackfruit would result in chunks which would, perhaps, remain more sturdy when cooking. Do you have experience with fresh?? I've never seen fresh jackfruit ANYWHERE around here (in south-central Delaware, USA), but I'm only about 2 hours from Washington, DC a little less from Annapolis, MD, so I'm gonna plan a trip over there and search for it in the near future. There are a couple of Whole Foods Markets in those areas where I might have a better chance of finding the fresh jackfruit. I'm SOOO eager to try a fresh one!
Has your grandmother tried this recipe of yours?? I'll bet she is TERRIBLY PROUD of you and your culinary creations!
Anyway, if you have any personal experience/advice for using fresh jackfruit, I'd love your comments! In the meantime, keep these wonderful creations coming our way! (I KNOW you will!!).....I PROMISE I will eventually get to ALL of them!.........Daryl
Daryl you beat me to the question about fresh jackfruit. I am in Annapolis and do a road trip to H-Mart, a regional Asian mega-grocer in Catonsville, west of Baltimore, from time to time, and they have fresh jackfruit. I would think many other Asian grocers in the mid-Atlantic also carry fresh jackfruit. However the fruits are usually huge! I wonder if they fit the description of "young" that is used for the canned in brine version.
Thomas, are you blending all the cashew cream ingredients ahead of time and culturing, or just blending and adding straight to the recipe? I don't see a note about prep for the cream.
Hi Carolyn! Thanks for that tip about Catonsville, although it's probably about the same distance for me to travel into the DC area, where I know there's at least 1 (probably more) really great Asian markets, and where I also have friends (grew up there!), but that Catonsville mega-grocer is good to know about!!
And yeah, fresh jackfruit ARE HUUUUUUUUUGE!!!...I'm not an expert on jackfruit, by any means, but according to what minimal research I've done, when jackfruit become RIPE, they are very SWEET (after all, they ARE a fruit!), but when they are "young" that means they are UNRIPE, and it is in THAT condition in which they have that amazing meat-like, fibrous texture. Also the young (unripe) jackfruit don't have much flavor (yet!), which is GREAT for using it to give that meaty texture, and absorb OTHER flavors...sorta like tofu absorbs flavors. I have seen one video somewhere on YouTube which shows someone using an unripe FRESH jackfruit, and evidently it is QUITE A MESS because the young unripe jackfruit is QUITE STICKY, and, according to the women filming the video, can be rather difficult to get off your hands (so probably better to use gloves), although she said that rubbing your hands with any kind of OIL and THEN washing them with soap seems to do the trick to get it off the hands....Anyway, I'm still GAME to try it, so I'm DEFINITELY gonna be on the lookout for a fresh one.....maybe I'll have to rent a U-HAUL to lug it home....hahaha...just kiddin'.....they're big, I know, but not quite THAT big!!....Anyway, thanks again for the tip....and good luck if/when you try it, and same to me....I'm sure we'll report our results to Thomas!! (Hi Thomas...hahaha!)..........Daryl
I can confirm it's very sweet, I tried frozen ripe jackfruit once and it tasted like a mix of mango and pineapple if I remember correctly. It was also less fibrous.
Wow, preparing young jackfruit sounds like a lot of work! I would be happy to hear your feedback if you do try it Daryl!
Hey Carolyn,
I agree with you, I don't believe the huuuge jackfruits available at Asian stores are considered young, I think they are meant to be eaten as a fruit so they are probably ripe. Maybe it's possible to order them young jackfruit, but I never asked.
Oh sorry about that! Forgot to add the cashew cream instructions, it's fixed now. For this specific recipe, I don't culture the cream, I rely on yogurt and lemon juice to give it some tanginess.
Thanks for the input Daryl!
That is correct, the canned young jackfruit is usually very soft. Some are a bit firmer though, depending on the brand. I never had the chance to find fresh young jackfruit either. I saw jackfruit several times at the Asian stores but they were ripe and sweet. Honestly, I would be scared to cut it, it's so huge! You better have a very, very long knife!
Haha, no my grandmother didn't get the chance to try it yet 🙂 One day, maybe. Good luck with your cookbook project!
Your recipes look so delicious I plan to try them. Thank you! I'll let you know how they turn out!
Thanks Muriel!
I just made this recipe and its incredible. Thank you so much!!
I live in Australia and its the middle of summer here, but that didn't stop me from enjoying this recipe one bit.
Its unlike any other dish I've had during my 10 years of being vegan.
I'm so impressed and will definitely be making it again.
Awesome! So happy to hear you liked this one Jacinta 🙂
Thanks for your feedback!
This looks beautiful!...I've been searching for jack fruit recipes that aren't tomato based.
Hey love the idea for the recipe. Unfortunately the execution was a little sloppy for me.
The water all but got absorbed after a hour(maybe add a note to say to keep adding water) And jackfruit basically became a slurry for me. Dont get me wrong the flavor was still very good however in the end it wasn't what i had hoped for. Also the smoked paprika which I assume is for marinating the jackfruit was left out in the instructions. I also did not use a dutch oven as I did not have one.
Like the idea of using jackfruit for something other than bbq taco meat though!
Hey Ross,
Thanks for your feedback. I guess the water got "absorbed" because you didn't use a dutch oven. Regarding the slurry, maybe try a different brand of jackfruit, or cut it into bigger chunks.
If you liked the overall flavors, you might want to try the recipe with vegan chick'n instead of jackfruit 😉
This was delicious! I loved the texture of the sauce, it was a very wholesome meal and I'm looking forward to having the rest tomorrow!
P.S Having no garlic and removing the onion at the end also means that it's IBS friendly for the most part
Thanks for your feedback Joe! 🙂