Mexican Jackfruit Tortilla Soup Recipe

Jackfruit wears many hats. This extremely large tropical fruit has gained popularity as a meat replacer, but ripe jackfruit is eaten as a sweet fruit, and the firmer, unripe pieces are cooked and eaten as a vegetable. This is where the magic happens for fans of vegetarian or vegan cooking. Jackfruit has smoother sections that are chopped and stringier sections that are pulled apart by hand. This last quality makes it a good replacement for meat because the stringy pieces resemble pulled pork or shredded chicken.

That's why jackfruit is a great option for replacing chicken in Mexican tortilla soup. Recipe developer Michelle Bottalico has created a Mexican jackfruit tortilla soup recipe that's a delicious meat-free version of the original. Bottalico says: "I based this soup on traditional Mexican sopa azteca, which doesn't contain meat, and Mexican chicken tortilla soup, which does, and tweaked it to feature jackfruit as a shredded meat replacement. While jackfruit doesn't contain protein, the visual is spot on. A plus is it's full of fiber, so it's a delicious and creative way to start a balanced meal."

This tomato-based soup develops a wonderful complex, earthy, and smoky flavor from the pasilla chile peppers, and toppings like crunchy homemade tortilla strips, cilantro, avocado, and lime add a fun finish as well as a beautiful visual. Unless you opt for the optional cheese topping, the whole recipe is plant-based too. Whether you're vegan or omnivorous, we think you'll enjoy adding this recipe to your repertoire.

For this recipe, you will first need dried pasilla chile peppers. These narrow dried peppers have dark shriveled skins and are up to eight inches long. They add a complex flavor to the soup, and since the seeds will be taken out first, the final dish won't be spicy. Dried pasilla chiles can be found in Latin American grocery stores and some standard grocery stores.

You'll also need canned young jackfruit, also known as green jackfruit because it is unripe. The cans should be packed in brine, not syrup. Two 14-ounce cans will give you enough pieces for this recipe, with some left over. Canned jackfruit is on the pricier side, so if you need to economize, just use one can and make the soup less dense. The other soup ingredients are olive oil, Roma tomatoes, yellow onion, garlic, vegetable broth or water, salt, black pepper, and fresh oregano (or sub fresh or dried epazote if you can find it). If you purchase the vegetable broth, make sure you like the taste of it because the flavor will be noticeable.

For the topping, you will need small corn tortillas and olive oil for making the fried tortilla strips (or you can purchase them ready-made if you prefer to skip this step). The other toppings are a Hass avocado, cilantro, and lime wedges. Finally, cheese is an optional ingredient for topping the soup. We recommend shredded mozzarella or crumbled cotija, but other soft white cheeses like panella will work too.

Cut the dried chiles in half, remove the stems, and shake out the seeds. Discard or save the seeds for another use.

Place the chiles in a bowl of hot water and let them sit for 20 minutes to rehydrate. The hottest tap water is sufficient.

Place the jackfruit in a colander and rinse it well under running water. Shake the colander to remove as much water as possible.

Remove the V-shaped cores of the jackfruit pieces with a knife and chop them into small pieces. With your fingers pull apart the stringy parts of the jackfruit pieces until they resemble pulled pork or chicken.

Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a frying pan on medium.

Add the jackfruit to the pan and saute for 5-7 minutes, stirring frequently, until it starts to dry out and brown. Remove from heat and set aside.

Heat ½ tablespoon oil in a large saucepan on medium. Add the chiles, tomatoes, onion, and garlic and saute for 6-7 minutes.

Transfer the tomato mixture to a blender, add a ladleful of broth or water, and blend until smooth.

Pour the tomato mixture back into the saucepan and add the rest of the broth or water, salt, black pepper, and the jackfruit.

Bring the liquid to a boil and then lower the heat and let it simmer for 10 minutes.

Add the oregano, taste, and adjust for salt and pepper, and let the soup simmer for another 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, stack the tortillas and cut them into strips about ⅜ inch wide.

Heat ½ tablespoon oil in a frying pan on medium-low.

Fry the tortilla strips for 6-8 minutes, stirring occasionally, until golden and crispy. Set aside.

Ladle the soup into individual bowls and top with tortilla strips, avocado, cilantro, lime juice, and cheese if desired.

Serve immediately.

Jackfruit is a tropical fruit that originated in Asia and is cultivated in tropical regions worldwide. The outer rind is bumpy and green, and the fruit can grow up to two feet long and weigh up to forty pounds. In fact, it's the largest fruit that grows on trees. Young, unripe jackfruit is not sweet, and it's cooked and eaten as a vegetable. Ripe jackfruit is sweet and slightly acidic and is eaten as a fruit.

While you can find whole jackfruit in some markets and Asian grocery stores in the United States, this recipe doesn't call for a fresh piece because one of these huge fruits will be much more than you'll need. If you prefer to use a whole jackfruit, you'll need to core, seed, chop, and cook it first. Make sure you're using an unripe piece, which will be green. Ripe jackfruit has yellow skin.

For this recipe, we recommend canned young jackfruit, which is already chopped and cooked. In fact, prepping canned jackfruit before cooking it is pretty simple compared to working with the gigantic whole fruit. You'll just need to drain and rinse it, chop the cores, and separate the stringy parts. Make sure it's packed in brine rather than syrup. Jackfruit packed in syrup is likely to be the sweet, ripe version. You can also buy frozen young jackfruit chunks if you can't find it canned.

Some of the ingredients in this soup recipe can easily be substituted if necessary. Original recipes for Mexican soup call for epazote — a staple herb in Mexican cuisine. If epazote is available in your area, then just use that instead of the oregano we've included. Fresh or dried epazote is fine, but reduce the amount of the dried herb by ⅓. You could also use cilantro, although it will add a different flavor.

If you're not concerned about keeping the recipe plant-based, you could sub chicken broth for the vegetable broth. Jackfruit is a main ingredient in this recipe so the soup wouldn't be the same without it, but if you can't find it or if you want to try a different version, you could sub black beans.

If you can't find dried pasilla chile peppers, you could sub dried ancho chile peppers. Another option is to use chipotle peppers in adobo sauce. These are moist, so no need to soak them. You could even use any kind of dried red chile pepper or fresh jalapeño if necessary, because they tend to be easier to find. Finally, the tortilla strips can be deep fried like they are in many original Mexican soup recipes, or, on the other end of the spectrum, cooked in a dry pan or baked for an oil-free version.