The flavours of this dish are smoky, sticky, and savoury-sweet—a plant-based twist on classic barbecue, born from Sri Lankan soil.
This uses young green jackfruit, which has a completely different personality to mature jackfruit. Where mature jackfruit is dense and meaty, young jackfruit is tender and flaky, effortlessly shredding apart like pulled pork when cooked. It doesn't taste like fruit. It simply becomes whatever you cook it with.
Our Sri Lankan take on BBQ is bold and layered. Ginger, garlic, and black pepper provide warmth. Mustard paste adds sharpness, while chilli powder brings a gentle kick. The sweetness comes from Kithul jaggery (Kithul Hakuru) —a traditional palm sap sweetener with a distinctive smoky, floral depth that refined sugar simply cannot replicate. Fresh pineapple adds bright, fruity tang, while soya and tomato sauce round it out with savoury, umami richness.
The result is sticky, smoky, and packed with character. Every forkful shreds apart, soaked in that sweet-spicy glaze.
Pile it into buns for a pulled jackfruit burger, serve alongside rice and a simple salad, or let it shine next to our Colombo Chicken for a feast that covers all bases. A seriously good vegan option that even meat-eaters will fight over.
