Back in my very first year of college I managed a BBQ restaurant for about 2 years. Mind you, I was a pretty big meat eater at this point, and one of my absolute favorite things on the menu was this BBQ Bowl. It had BBQ pulled pork, mac and cheese, and was topped off with coleslaw, Carolina style. It was every bit of a calorie bomb as it sounds like, but it was delicious, and hit all of the flavor profiles you would expect from a BBQ joint. It had the hearty factor from the mac and cheese, the tangy factor from the BBQ sauce covered pulled pork, and the fresh crunch to offset it all from the fresh made coleslaw. Again, total calorie bomb, but still, SO GOOD.
Today I recreated that with this bowl, but I made it plant-based and one million times healthier. I subbed smoky seasoned sweet potatoes for the mac and cheese, BBQ jackfruit for the pulled pork, and my own purple cabbage slaw with a vegan coleslaw dressing to top it all off.
This bowl hit all of those BBQ notes that I loved from the original, just in a much healthier way. It’s the perfect, plant-based way to get your BBQ on, just no grill or smoker required.
BBQ Jackfruit Bowl
Author: The Lean Clean Eating Machine
Jackfruit:
- 2 cans jackfruit in brine; drained and rinsed
- 1/2 small sweet onion
- Drizzle of olive or avocado oil
- 2 cloves garlic; smashed and minced
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon coconut sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
- Salt
- 1 teaspoon liquid smoke
- 1/2 cup bbq sauce + more to taste if desired – I used Stubbs Original because it is gluten free
Potatoes:
- 2 medium sweet potatoes; peeled and cut into 1/4″ rounds, then cut in half
- 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
- Salt to taste
- Olive or avocado oil to coat
Coleslaw:
- 3/4 cup julienned carrots
- 1/2 small head of purple cabbage; finely sliced then chopped into smaller pieces
- 1 bunch green onions; finely sliced
- 1/4 small red onion; very thinly sliced and chopped into smaller sections
- 1/2 cup vegan mayonnaise
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- 1/2 teaspoon maple syrup
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 400F.
- In a large mixing bowl, coat potatoes with a small drizzle of oil and toss to coat. Add in your potato seasonings and toss to evenly coat. Place potatoes on a baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes, flipping once halfway through. Potatoes should be soft with a slightly golden brown exterior when finished.
- While potatoes are cooking, prepare your jackfruit. In a large mixing bowl, shred rinsed and drained jackfruit with hands into pieces. You can even do this with harder stemmed pieces and seeds. Set aside.
- In a large frying pan, sautee diced yellow onion on medium/high heat until translucent, or about 4 minutes. Add in your minced garlic and sautee until fragrant, or about 30 seconds. When finished, remove contents of pan to a separate small bowl.
- Add a small drizzle of oil back into the pan and put your shredded jackfruit in. With a potato masher, mash the jackfruit up slightly more so it resembles pulled pork or pulled chicken. Let jackfruit cook on medium/high heat, until edges start to turn slightly golden brown, then add back in your onion, garlic, liquid smoke and seasonings and stir to thoroughly combine. Turn heat to low and add in 1/2 cup of BBQ sauce. Stir to throughly coat.
- In a medium sized mixing bowl, combine all of your prepared vegetable ingredients for the coleslaw and mix to combine.
- In a small mixing bowl, mix together the vegan mayonnaise, apple cider vinegar, dijon mustard and maple syrup, and season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Pour dressing over coleslaw veggies a little at a time, just enough to evenly coat. You will likely have extra left over that you can use at a later time.
- When everything is ready, layer into bowls as shown above and dress with a little extra BBQ sauce if desired, and a few pickle slices for color.