How to make Romy Gill's jackfruit sabzi

From her debut cookbook, ‘Zaika’, focusing on vegan Indian food, she recalls how excited she was to find tinned jackfruit

It's such an underrated fruit, and for years we couldn’t get it unless you went to a speciality shop

Jackfruit sabzi

I was born and grew up in a township in Bengal and I was very fortunate that we had various fruit trees, one of which was a kathal tree, from which we picked sweet jackfruits.

When the fruit was in season my mum would use some for making sabzi, some for pickling and she would leave a few fruits on the tree to ripen.

Jackfruit is such an underrated fruit, and for years we couldn’t get it unless you went to a speciality shop, but now all the supermarkets stock it in tins.

The moment I saw tinned jackfruit it gave me so much joy that I bought it and called my mum for this recipe so I could make it the same day.

It’s a dry dish that’s great served with a wrap, pitta bread, roti or as a side with rice and dal.

Serves 2–4

Cook: 15 minutes

2 tbsp sunflower oil 
1 tsp black mustard seeds 
6 curry leaves 
2 small onions, sliced 
3 tomatoes, chopped 
½ tsp ground turmeric 
1 tsp ground coriander 
1 tsp garam masala 
1 tsp mango powder (amchoor) 
1 tsp Kashmiri red chilli powder 
1 tsp salt 
400g tin jackfruit chunks, drained 
Wraps, pitta bread or Roti to serve

Heat the oil in a pan over a medium heat, then add the mustard seeds. When they start popping, add the curry leaves and immediately add the sliced onions and cook, stirring continuously, for 5–6 minutes until the onions are golden brown.

Add the chopped tomatoes to the pan and cook for a further 3 minutes.

Stir in all the spices, chilli and salt and cook for 2 minutes. Add the jackfruit to the paste, stir it in well and cook for 4–5 minutes.

Serve with wraps, pitta bread or roti.

'Zaika: Vegan recipes from India' by Romy Gill, published by Orion Books is out now. Photography by Del Sneddon