Breadfruit substitute
Frozen or Canned Breadfruit
Use the same amount by weight as the breadfruit you are replacing
Peeled, cored breadfruit sold in frozen chunks or canned in brine in Caribbean, West African, Filipino and Pacific Island grocers.
Other breadfruit substitutes
Ranked, with the exact amount to use
Substitutes for Breadfruit with ratios
2Russet or Yukon Gold Potato
Different textureWhat changes
- Best for
- boiled breadfruit, breadfruit fries and chips, roasted chunks, stews and oil down, breadfruit salad, curry
Very close in role, noticeably different in texture and slightly different in flavour. Breadfruit is denser and firmer than potato with a faint sweetness and, as the name suggests, a bready, chestnut-like quality; potato is fluffier, wetter inside and cleaner tasting. In practice: russet for fries and roasting because it crisps and goes fluffy, Yukon Gold for boiling and stews because it holds its shape as breadfruit does. Cut potato into larger pieces than the recipe says and add it to a stew later, since it will collapse in the time breadfruit needs. For breadfruit salad, boiled Yukon Gold plus a squeeze of lime is a genuinely good version of the dish.
3Green Jackfruit in Brine
Different tasteWhat changes
- Best for
- plant-based curries, stews and rundown, tacos and fillings, oil down
The best texture match for the slightly fibrous, meaty quality that mature-but-firm breadfruit has, which is why both fruits turn up in the same plant-based recipes. It is much less starchy though, so it will not thicken a stew or fill a plate the way breadfruit does, and canned jackfruit carries a distinct sour-briny note that needs rinsing and about twenty minutes of cooking to shed. Use it where you want breadfruit's shreddable texture and add a potato as well if you also need the starch. Do not buy jackfruit in syrup, which is the ripe sweet fruit and completely wrong here.
4Green (Unripe) Plantain
Taste and texture differWhat changes
- Best for
- boiled starchy sides, oil down and stews, fried chunks and chips, soups
A very natural swap because plantain sits on the same Caribbean plate as breadfruit and holds its shape beautifully through a long simmer. It is firmer, more fibrous and a bit drier than breadfruit, with a green banana note behind the starch that you will notice on a plain boiled plate and not at all in a coconut oil down. Excellent for fried chunks, where it gives a crisp shell and firm interior, though breadfruit fries are creamier in the middle. Rub your knife and hands with oil, since green plantain sap stains.
5Taro, Malanga or Yautia
Different tasteWhat changes
- Best for
- stews and sancocho, boiled sides, soups, oil down
The closest match on density and the best choice in a long-cooked one-pot, because like breadfruit these roots stay in recognisable pieces instead of dissolving. They taste nuttier and earthier than breadfruit and are slightly slippery on the tongue, and they thicken the cooking liquid more, so a stew will come out noticeably heavier. Both must be fully cooked, and raw taro and malanga can irritate bare skin, so peel them under running water or wear gloves.
6Winter Squash or Pumpkin, and the Honest Limit
Taste and texture differWhat changes
- Best for
- oil down, soups and stews, curries where sweetness is welcome
This is the least-good option and worth being straight about. Squash is sweeter, softer and much wetter than breadfruit, it breaks down into the sauce rather than holding its shape, and it turns the pot orange. In a coconut oil down or a soup that already has pumpkin in it, that is fine and even pleasant. In roast breadfruit, breadfruit fries or breadfruit salad, where the whole point is a dense, firm, faintly bready bite, squash is simply the wrong food and a potato is a far better answer. Add it in the last fifteen minutes and cut any other sweet element in the dish.
What is Breadfruit?
Breadfruit is A large round green tropical fruit with pebbled skin and dense pale flesh, cooked and eaten as a starchy vegetable rather than as a fruit, and known as breadfruit in the Caribbean and ulu in the Pacific.
Cooking tips
- Breadfruit is always cooked, never eaten raw, and the right cooking method depends entirely on its stage. Firm and fully green it is a starch: boil, roast, fry or curry it. Half-ripe, when it gives slightly to a thumb, it turns creamy and sweetish and suits mashing or frying. Fully soft and ripe it is a dessert fruit, closer to custard, and useless in a savoury dish.
- To roast a whole one Jamaican style, cut out the stem so steam can escape, then char it over a flame, on a grill or in a 400F oven for about an hour until the skin is black and a skewer slides through. Let it cool a little, peel off the blackened skin, cut it in wedges and cut out the spongy core. That smoky, slightly bitter char is the flavour a substitute cannot reproduce.
- Cut out the core, always. Every breadfruit has a soft, spongy central column that never becomes pleasant to eat. Quarter the fruit and slice it out at an angle, the way you would core a pineapple.
- The sticky white latex is the annoying part. Oil the knife and your hands before you cut into a fresh breadfruit, or cut it under running water, and wash the board straight away because the sap sets like glue.
- For fries, boil the chunks until barely tender first, cool them, then fry them hot. Raw breadfruit fried straight from the fruit browns on the outside and stays chalky in the middle, exactly as raw cassava does.
- Breadfruit is starch and body, not flavour, so it thickens whatever it cooks in and it soaks up seasoning. Salt the cooking water, and expect an oil down or curry with breadfruit in it to tighten as it sits and to need a splash of stock on reheating.
Frequently asked questions
Can I just leave breadfruit out?
What does breadfruit taste like?
Is potato really a fair swap for breadfruit?
Is jackfruit the same as breadfruit?
Can I use ripe soft breadfruit in a savoury recipe?
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