Monday, July 7, 2014

Vegan BBQ Messy Sandwich

Okay, Yes, this is the vegan replacement for pulled pork. It drives my husband nuts that we do that to vegan recipes. He is a meat eater so in the end it makes little difference to him but it is true. We create this 'alike' recipes because we crave or miss something from the meat eating world. So I say go ahead but then be inventive as to what yopu call it, take the animal out of the equation. I will put the akin name in keywords for searches but no longer in the name.

Moving on

Vegan BBQ Messy Sandwiches.

How this turns out totally depends on your rub and BBQ sauce. Mine are still being tweeked and I will post once I am in love. For now find one you like or love and make this your own.  I made this for a 'See you later' BBQ this past weekend and it went like gangbusters. Sitting along side it's porcine doppelganger, the meat eaters chowed down on my pot of goodness.

YIELD: unsure but at least 10 good sized sandwiches


INGREDIENTS:

4 cans of jackfruit in brine or water*
4 cups BBQ Sauce
2 Onions halved and sliced
3 cloves of garlic minced
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp smoked paprika**
1 tsp salt
1 tsp garlic powder 
1 tsp onion powder
1 tbsp chili powder


DIRECTIONS:

Before you cut anything put the oil in the bottom of a crock pot and turn it on high.***

As you cut the onion and garlic add it to the crock pot to get started softening.***

Rinse the jackfruit and let stand to drain fully. (there may be seed pods dont stress over them, they become quite soft and edible as well.)

Mix all dry ingredients together in a large bowl with a lid or a ziplock bag.

Cut the core (the triangular bit that is tougher than the ouside) and dicard the core.

Add the remaing Jackfruit to the dry ingredients and shake to coat.

Once the onions are softened add the Jackfruit and the BBQ sauce and allow to cook on high for at  least two hours.

Mash with a fork to pull the jackfruit apart.

Serve hot on the roll of your choosing.  I reccommend adding coleslaw to the sandwich as well, but that is just me.  So Very Yummy!

* Can be challanging to find try Indian or Asian food stores. It is more redily available in its fully ripened in syrup form.  This works but rinse VERY well and do not add any sweetener to your BBQ sauce. It is aloso more time consuming to pull as you need to do it piece by piece like ypu do with pork.

** Regular paprika is just fine, I just like the added smoky flavour.

*** You can also soften the onions and garlic in a skillet first, even blsacken them a bit to add to the BBQ flavour. Or not at all, two hours or more in a Crock Pot will certainly soften them. I just like to give them a head start.