The Fried Breadfruit Recipe is a delicious healthier snack or side dish idea.
You can serve this vegan and gluten-free fruit instead of Potato French Fries/ Chips with other meals.
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What is breadfruit?
Breadfruit is a starchy round fruit, which is about 1-2 pounds (½ - 1kg) heavy.
The breadfruit tastes rather plain and can be compared ot the flavor of a potato, rather starchy.
The fruit acts like a sponge in a way and cake in flavors easily and that's why I like to marinate it.
Breadfruit commonly grows in tropical climates and countries such as in South East Asia, India and on the Caribbean Islands including Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and all the other smaller Islands.
How to prepare it?
To prepare this fried breadfruit recipe is fairly easy.
Watch the video how to.
Step 1 - cutting the fruit
Cut the tough peel off the breadfruit.
Most breadfruits are seedless. If you have breadfruit with seeds, take out the large brown chestnut sized seeds, which can be found at the ring around the center.
Cut the fruit into quarters and cut out the center part with the large pores as this is rather fibrous.
You can choose to cut your breadfruit into larger or smaller chip-sized pieces.
Don't cut too thin, nor too thick.
Step 2 - the marination
In a bowl mix the marination ingredients (details in the recipe card further below).
Mix the marination into the breadfruit pieces and leave to marinate for at least 30 minutes.
Step 3 - frying the breadfruit
Heat up a pan with oil and fry your breadfruit on both sides golden brown and crisp.
Serve the cooked Fried Breadfruit with a dip such as Ketchup, Mayo or Sriracha Mayonnaise.
Buying
Breadfruits can be bought in ethnic stores such as the Caribbean, Asian or African store.
Breadfruit is closely related to Jackfruit, Soursop, and Custard apple.
If you get these fruits in your local store, you might be able to buy the breadfruit there as well.
If you have seen the breadfruit somewhere in the western world sold in a market or supermarket, please share the place and location with us in a comment further below.
Your help might assist others looking for the breadfruit.
Names around the world
The Breadfruit's botanical name is Artocarpus altilis.
In your corner of the world the breadfruit might be known under a different name, such as fruit a pain (French), Brotfrucht (German), Frutipan (Spanish), Fruta-pao (Portugues), Ulu (Hawai'i), Uru (Tahiti), Dhel (Sri Lanka), Buah Sukun (Malaysia) and Yaca (Mexico).
Health points
The fruit flesh is considered tasteless and soaks in flavors easily.
The fruit gets sweeter the riper it is, yet it never gets as sweet as other fruits do.
That means we get to choose, if we would like to prepare it for a savory dish or if we would prefer to turn it into a sweet dessert.
You can boil the breadfruit, fry it, roast it, bake it or turn it into a flour.
Breadfruit flour is Gluten-free.
Breadfruit Nutrients
The Breadfruit is mainly carbs, yet it contains other useful nutrients for our body.
The fruit is a rich source of fiber, controlling your cholesterol levels and it contains Omega essential fats.
Usually those healthy essential fats are found in meats such as fish, so in my opinion, that should be the first reason for Vegetarians to get hold of the breadfruit.
Another interesting fact is that you will find a good amount of Vitamin C in unripe breadfruits, which are Antioxidants and those are known as cancer cell killers.
Our breadfruit tree when we planted it all new.
Breadfruit tree and varieties
A breadfruit tree grows a tremendous amount of fruits every season.
In South East Asia and India the trees are heavy with fruits and a breadfruit tree grows already fruits after 2-3 years.
That is why the humble breadfruit was added to the world food security program since the trees require little space compared to wheat fields and one grown tree can give in average 100 fruits (!).
You get different breadfruit varieties, the seedless ones, and the breadfruits that come with large brown seeds in them.
The ones we grow and use in the pictures and video are seedless breadfruits.
I have seen breadfruit with seeds in the Caribbeans.
The large seeds are not at the center of the fruit but around that center ring.
Breadfruit seeds can be eaten as well.
You can boil them and eat them like jackfruit seeds.
They taste like chestnuts and the seed water (from the boiling process) can be used as a tea.
Breadfruit vs Jackfruit
By the way, the Breadfruit and Jackfruit are related but the flesh and size are totally different.
Jackfruit smell fruity sweet and they are more sticky.
That means you need to use oil on your knife and hands when you want to cut out the fruit flesh.
Breadfruits on the other hands are plain in flavor and the fruit flesh in one and appear more like a sponge.
Breadfruit is a bit sticky so you can, but you don't have to, use some oil on your hands when handling the fruit.
I used to add oil to cut breadfruit int he past, but I stopped doing that and instead I just cut it quickly.
You can choose to use oil to help you cut the breadfruit if you feel your breadfruit variety is too sticky.
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📖 Recipe
Fried Breadfruit Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 Breadfruit about 2.2 pounds or 1 kg
For the marination
- 1 Teaspoon Turmeric Ground
- 1 Teaspoon Cayenne Pepper ground
- ½ Teaspoon Salt
- ½ Teaspoon Black Pepper
- Juice of 1-2 Lime
For the frying
- ½ cup Oil fry batch wise, ¼ cup Oil first and then the rest
Instructions
- Peel the Breadfruit, then half and quarter it. Discard the fruit core. If you have a breadfruit variety with large chestnut sized seeds in the ring area, take out all the seeds too (most breadfruits are seedless and don't have that. The fruit will change color, that's alright.1 Breadfruit
- Cut the fruit into thicker slices. Not too thick and not too thin. Somewhere in between.1 Breadfruit
- Mix the marination ingredients together including the turmeric, cayenne pepper, salt, black pepper and lime juice.1 Teaspoon Turmeric Ground, 1 Teaspoon Cayenne Pepper ground, ½ Teaspoon Salt, ½ Teaspoon Black Pepper, Juice of 1-2 Lime
- Pour the marination over the breadfruit in an extra large bowl and mix it all well together. No liquid residue will be left.
- Heat up some cooking oil in a pan and once hot add the marinated fruit slices. Fry on each side until golden brown. Use ¼ cup of oil to fry half of the batch. *see Notes½ cup Oil
- Serve with some salt sprinkled over it with a dipping sauce of your choice.
Notes
- You can choose to only fry ½ of the batch, which I do because it gets too much sometimes. I refrigerate the other half. That means half of the breadfruit slices are fried in ¼ cup of oil. If you fry all the breadfruit pieces, then use first ¼ cup of oil and add the other ¼ cup to the pan when you are halfway through frying everything.
