Vegan BBQ pulled jackfruit with coleslaw and a chipotle butter and lime corn on the cob

Sometimes, too, we forget about having a day to do something fun like making some food for ourselves and our friends, and just doing nothing. I'm very guilty of that and sometimes you have to just stop and remember that little things like this are what make life good.

So, if you feel you can treat yourself to a day off and want to make something totally awesome… here it is, pulled jackfruit! Now I know what you're thinking: everyone's doing pulled pork, pulled this and pulled that, I'm sick of the sight of it.

Well me too. When you start seeing big companies jumping on the bandwagon and putting it on their menu you know that trend is over. Well now's the time to try something totally different which is cheaper, healthier and is actually too similar-tasting to meat for some of my vegan friends.

This could be right up the street of the carnivore who doesn't think vegan cooking's for them.

Normally, I would do this in a tortilla bowl with maybe coca cola beans, coleslaw, pickles and some other tasty treats, but this is a quick and no hassle way of doing it, and you can even buy the coleslaw if you want to be super lazy.

If you're wheat intolerant, swap the wheat bun for a spelt or something else, or even use a nice big crisp lettuce leaf if you wanted to do a healthier option.

The best thing about this is it keeps for a good while and just gets better the more you heat it in the oven, going all lovely and crisp. I used what was left of mine to make a pulled jackfruit, red onion and sweet corn pizza with the sourdough base recipe I gave you a few blogs back.

For the jackfruit:

20oz can of jackfruit in brine (not the sweet dessert kind; cans are widely available from most Asian supermarkets)

Olive oil

1 white onion

2 red chillies (you can leave these out if you don't like heat)

1 small bunch of thyme

4 cloves of garlic

1 Tsp of smoked paprika

2 Tsp Worcester sauce (you can buy vegan brands from most health food stores)

3 Tbsp of molasses

2 Tbsp of American style mustard

2 Tbsp of ketchup

2 Tbsp of cider vinegar

2 cups of vegan bouillon

1 Tbsp of soya sauce

2 Tbsp of maple syrup

2 Shots of bourbon

Method

1 Empty the jackfruit into a colander and drain, chop off the middle fibrous stalk.

2 Finely dice the onion, garlic and sauté in a deep pan with the jackfruit for about 15 3 minutes until everything starts to soften and turn golden.

4 Add a little more oil if needed then all the other ingredients, stir the mix till everything's coated in the sauce and then cover and simmer for about 50/60 minutes or until all the sauce has thickened and the jackfruit has started to soften and tear apart.

5 Keep checking every ten minutes or so, give the pan a little stir so nothing is stuck to the pot.

6 When its ready you should be able to tear the jackfruit apart with a fork, there shouldn't be too much liquid, just a nice sticky BBQ consistency.

7 Let it sit whilst you toast your bun, pop some dill pickles, mustard and coleslaw on there, add your jackfruit, don't forget about that delicious corn on the cob and finally ice cold beer.

For the coleslaw:

1 red onion thinly sliced

¼ red cabbage thinly sliced

¼ white cabbage thinly sliced

2 Tbsp of wholegrain mustard

2 Tbsp of maple syrup

Mix all ingredients together.

For the corn on cob:

Fresh corn on cob - 1 per person

Dried Chipotle chillies

Fresh lime

Fresh coriander

Vegan margarine

Salt and pepper

Method

1 If you have a griddle pan scorch the sides of the sweet corn before cooking.

2 In a roasting tin place the corn in and smother them in the margarine, dried chillies salt and pepper.

3 Cook in a pre-heated oven at about 180 for 20 minutes or until ready.

4 Before serving squeeze some fresh lime on top and sprinkle some chopped coriander.

Next day I have free I'm definitely doing this. I hope you do too!