This 3-Ingredient Jackfruit Smoothie is sweet, creamy, and refreshing. It couldn’t be simpler to make and really brings the best flavor out of fresh, ripe jackfruit. If you just bought a whole jackfruit on impulse and don’t know what to do with all of it, give this a try!
Discovering a new fruit
I’m relatively new to jackfruit. I’ve used packaged jackfruit carnitas occasionally in tacos and Buddha bowls and enjoyed it, but never dealt with a whole, fresh fruit. They look pretty intimidating in their whole form – they’re huge and covered with spikes. I was curious to learn more about them though, so I picked one up. It weighed 15 pounds and had to be handled with gloves and wrapped in newspaper when I bought it.
I wasn’t sure what to expect, but this fruit made me happy from the time I cut into it. It wasn’t as tough to cut through as I had expected and the aroma was fantastic. I tried a piece of the fruit and it was like a pineapple, but not acidic. After trying a few more pieces I could also see the resemblance in flavor to bananas. (I later noticed a likeness to two foods from my childhood – banana popsicles and circus peanut candy.) The texture is also satisfying – springy and meaty. I can’t think of a fruit that has a similar texture, so I’ll just say it has an interesting and unusual mouthfeel.
The need for a 3-Ingredient Jackfruit Smoothie
The fruit was tasty enough by itself, but I felt like I should make something with it. It was a bit of work to bring the fruit home and dissect it. Further experimentation was in order. Wanting to keep things simple, I thought would be useful to create a drink that balances the sweetness of the jackfruit while still allowing the aroma to shine through. That’s where this smoothie comes in.
This smoothie is all about simplicity and pure flavor. You just need to blend fresh, ripe jackfruit, lime juice, and your choice of plant milk. The lime juice cuts the sweetness of the jackfruit just slightly and makes the drink a little tangy. The overall flavor of the drink is still largely that of the jackfruit.
Some notes and tips
Take care to remove all the seeds before blending the jackfruit.
It may be easier to use pre-cut jackfruit if it’s available. A whole jackfruit is a lot to eat and a lot to carry, and it can be a bit of work to get the pods separated and de-seeded.
This recipe is for fresh, ripe jackfruit. If you are interested to try it with canned jackfruit, be sure it is the ripe, not the green variety. And if the fruit comes in a can of syrup, you may want to rinse the syrup off so the drink won’t be overpoweringly sweet.
The smoothie is great mixed with white wine. I haven’t tried it with spirits but would bet vodka, rum, and tequila make for a refreshing addition as well.
If you want a frozen version of the drink, whether alcoholic or not, you can freeze the jackfruit before blending it. Just be sure the pods are well cleaned and the seeds removed before freezing.
The smoothie will stay good for 2-3 days in the fridge. The drink becomes fairly thick when chilled. You may want to think it out with a bit more plant milk (or water) in this case.
A NOTE ON BLENDERS: I tested this recipe with a Vitamix blender, which does an extraordinary job of blending fibrous foods. If you’re unsure of your blender’s ability to blend jackfruit to a smooth texture, I recommend testing the blender with a small amount of jackfruit (or a fibrous veggie, such as kale) and some liquid first, before blending an entire batch.
This smoothie will pair well with
- Vegan Massaman Curry
- Curry Tofu Scramble
- Vegan Spring Rolls
- Booze – white wine, rum, tequila, or vodka
If you try this recipe out, let me know! Leave a comment, rate it (once you’ve tried it), and take a picture and tag it @gastroplant on Instagram! I’d love to see what you come up with.
3-Ingredient Jackfruit Smoothie
Ingredients
- 2 cups ripe jackfruit meat loosely packed (about 4 whole pods, 8 ounces, or 200 grams)
- 4 Tablespoons lime juice about the juice of 1 lime
- 2 cups unsweetened unflavored plant milk
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients in a blender. Blend on high for 30 seconds or until uniformly blended. Serve or store immediately.
Notes
This looks super tasty!! I can’t wait to give it a try! It’s all delicious ingredients 🙂
The texture was chunky and chewy, even though I used Ninja and processed it longer than regular smoothie. I will just eat jackfruit next time as is.
Hi Ganna, I’m really sorry you had to go through this. I love fresh jackfruit and feel bad that you had this experience instead of just eating the fresh pods. I’ll put a note in the recipe about the blender so others don’t go down the same path.
The smoothie was delicious as listed. We used fresh jackfruit and the smoothie setting on our Vitamix. It turned out great! We’re looking forward experimenting with the recipe by adding cinnamon/turmeric and freezing the jackfruit. Thanks for the recipe!
I’m happy to hear that it turned out well. The cinnamon and turmeric sound lovely. I think coconut in some form would be really nice in it too. 🙂
Aloha! I had some frozen jackfruit that I didn’t want to go to waste and also have a really sensitive belly especially in the mornings and am up after pulling an all nighter so I needed a breakfast smoothie asap to help settle my stomach. Anyhow, I googled jackfruit smoothie and found your recipe! Thank you so much for sharing ! I used a few pieces of my frozen jackfruit, had some coconut left over in my fridge from one I drank the juice from a few days ago, so I cut out some of the pulp and put that along with some turmeric, alil black pepper, cinnamon, a tiny bit of brown sugar, coconut water and almond milk in my blend jet and it’s delicious. The water helped with the thickness and I really like the turmeric & cinnamon kick. I thought I put too much turmeric at first and was worried it’d taste bad, but to my surprise, not at all. This is definitely a 5 star recipe and it was so quick, efficient and effective. I’ve drank a quarter of my blend jet cup before writing this review and I’m already feeling full. I also like that you don’t need much jackfruit, I used about 4 small frozen pieces and it was plenty. So yummy again, definitely would recommend and will be having again! Thank you for sharing ♀️ lots of love from Brooklyn!