Vegan BBQ jackfruit pizza is a top tier pizza that is easy to make, comes together quickly and can be made gluten free! Perfect for jackfruit lovers or jackfruit newbies. Intrigued? Try more easy jackfruit recipes.
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🌟 Why this recipe works
- Easy – it’s actually so simple to make a vegan BBQ jackfruit pizza. It’s great because we use a shop bought pizza base, a shop bought BBQ sauce (we recommend Bull’s Eye BBQ sauce) and jarred jalapeños. The only thing you need to make is the sauce for the base and then chop the red onion! If you’re feeling it, you can always make your own homemade BBQ sauce.
- Pizza base – jackfruit pizza can be made on a homemade pizza base or a shop bought one. As we’re making a very simple BBQ jackfruit pizza, we chose to buy a pizza base (remember to check that it’s vegan) rather than make one. It’s just one of those things that in this situation, was so much simpler to buy. However, if you’re a whiz at making pizza dough, get your bake on!
- Versatile – while we add red onion and jalapeño to this jackfruit pizza, you can actually omit the chillies if you don’t want it to be spicy. Instead, you could add sliced jarred peppers. If you don’t love red onion, try spring onion or add a sprinkling of sweetcorn instead.
- Vegan BBQ ‘pulled pork’ – the jackfruit on this pizza is similar in flavour and texture to pulled pork, only it’s vegan! Pulling the jackfruit apart in the pan really helps to speed the recipe cooking time up too.
- Creamy – vegan BBQ jackfruit pizza is great with a creamy base instead of a tomato one. The creamy sauce is made with cauliflower that has been boiled for 8 minutes (specifically!) and then blended with two more simple ingredients. Cauliflower makes a great base for a creamy sauce. Like in this Cauliflower Alfredo.
📋 Ingredient Notes
- Jackfruit – whenever we cook with jackfruit in a savoury recipe, like our jackfruit fajitas, we always say the same thing! And this BBQ jackfruit pizza is no different, so I hope this bit isn’t boring. The main things to know are that you should be using young jackfruit that is sold in tins of brine or water. Opposed to ripe jackfruit which is sweet and sold in tins of syrup. It’s also important to remove the jackfruit seeds before you start cooking, if you don’t like the texture of them. Find out more about jackfruit.
- Pizza base – as mentioned above, we use a shop bought pizza base for this BBQ jackfruit pizza. It kept it simple and there was a new one that came out that we wanted to try! If you’re great at baking pizza dough, go ahead and make your dough and follow the rest of the recipe instructions as normal.
- BBQ sauce – in this recipe we use Bull’s Eye BBQ sauce. It has a great flavour – it’s not too sweet or sour, it’s just right. We recommend using your favourite shop-bought BBQ sauce. Make sure to check that it is vegan though, sometimes honey is used to sweeten them, especially in artisan BBQ sauces. You could alternatively make your own BBQ sauce.
- Jalapeños – BBQ jackfruit pizza goes great with a hint of spiciness! If you’d like less chilli, feel free to half the amount of jalapeños. If you don’t want any chilli at all, you can always replace them with some sliced roasted peppers from a jar.
Check out the recipe card at the bottom of this article for exact measurements to make this BBQ jackfruit pizza recipe.
🔪 Step-by-step Instructions
This is a step-by-step overview with photos for making a BBQ jackfruit pizza. The full recipe, along with measurements and detailed instructions can be found in the recipe card at the bottom of the page.
1. In a saucepan, boil the cauliflower for around 8 minutes or until cooked through.
2. Scoop the cauliflower out of the water (reserve the water) and put into a blender. Add the nutritional yeast and 3 tablespoon of the reserved water into the blender, along with some salt and black pepper and whizz up until smooth. Set aside.
3. Drain and rinse the jackfruit. Remove the seeds (round/bulb shaped bits), and the core (the pineapple-like, hard part) - you can discard these bits if you don’t like the texture (they can be a bit tough). They do soften up once cooked though, so we usually leave them in to save waste. Pop a splash of oil in a frying pan, once hot, add in the jackfruit.
4. Add in the garlic granules and then pour in the BBQ sauce. Stir well and gently cook for around 8-10 minutes, stirring regularly. The BBQ jackfruit should turn into a sticky mixture. Use the stirring spoon to encourage the jackfruit pieces to break apart into smaller pieces, along the strands. Set aside once ready.
5. Remove all packaging from the pizza base and lay out onto a tray or pizza tray. If the pizza base has parchment paper underneath it, it’s often easier to leave it on. Meaning you won’t need to grease or line your tray! Evenly spread the cauliflower sauce on the pizza base. All of the cauliflower creamy sauce will spread out and cover the base generously.
6. Place the BBQ jackfruit on top of the pizza and creamy base sauce.
7. Next place the red onion and jalapeños on the pizza, spread all of them out evenly.
8. Place the jackfruit pizza in the oven for around 15 minutes - or until the edges of the pizza go golden. Top with cashew parmesan or vegan parmesan. We like to dip the crusts in this amazing wild garlic pesto or more BBQ sauce.
👩🍳 Expert Tips
- Preparing and cooking jackfruit – to make this vegan jackfruit pizza, it’s important to buy the right jackfruit, and prepare it properly. So, first of all, not all tinned jackfruit is tinned equally. Some of it is sweet (ripe jackfruit) – don’t use that for this recipe. Also, some jackfruit flesh is softer than others. If you’re lucky enough to find out where you can get softer jackfruit (in our area, Sainsbury’s sells the softest jackfruit!), buy that one for this pizza. There’s no way to tell from the packaging, it’s just something to be aware of when you open the tin up. If your jackfruit is quite firm, it just means that you may need to cook it for a little longer. Find out about the benefits of jackfruit.
- Even distribution – the best vegan jackfruit pizza is one with evenly spread out toppings! This just means that the flavour profile is well distributed around the base, and every piece provides a balanced flavour.
- Switch up the toppings – we chose to add red onion and jalapenos to the jackfruit pizza but you can certainly mix it up! Try adding vegan cheese, slices of tomato, sweetcorn or even the ultimate love/hate pizza topping – chunks of pineapple!
- Storage – once sliced, place in an airtight container and it will keep in the refrigerator for 3 days. In addition, we also recommend placing a piece of parchment paper between each slice if you need to stack them in the container. This will protect the jackfruit pizza toppings! Reheat in the oven for best results.
- Freezing – as long as your pizza base is freezable (check the packaging), the jackfruit pizza will freeze for up to 3 months. Reheat from frozen in the oven for best results.
💭 FAQs
Often pizza bases are vegan, it just depends on the brand that is making them. It’s always best to check the packaging. We used the Pizza Express rectangular pizza dough, and it is labelled vegan. Sometimes pizza bases can contain dairy, so just make sure to check before buying.
Yes, very often BBQ sauce is vegan! Bull’s Eye BBQ sauce is vegan, as are many other shop-bought BBQ sauces. However, sometimes BBQ sauce can contain honey or other non-vegan ingredients, so it is best to check the ingredients just in case.
On this vegan jackfruit pizza, we actually recommend sprinkling on vegan parmesan once it is baked. However, in our opinion, the best vegan cheese for melting onto pizza is the Koko mature or the vegan Applewood (that one is smoky too!).
🍕 Serving suggestions
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📖 Recipe
Vegan BBQ Jackfruit Pizza
Ingredients
For the base:
- 400 g vegan pizza dough – shop bought, pre rolled
- 150 g cauliflower - cut into florets
- 2 tablespoon nutritional yeast
- 3 tablespoon water – reserved from cauliflower cooking water
- 0.5 teaspoon garlic granules
Toppings:
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 400 g jackfruit – 1 drained tin of young green jackfruit in brine.
- 5 tablespoon BBQ sauce
- ½ red onion – sliced
- 2 tablespoon jalapeños – sliced in half
- cashew 'parmesan' optional
Instructions
- In a saucepan, boil the cauliflower for around 8 minutes or until cooked through.150 g cauliflower
- Scoop the cauliflower out of the water (reserve the water) and put into a blender.
- Add the nutritional yeast and 3 tablespoon of the reserved water into the blender, along with some salt and black pepper and whizz up until smooth. Set aside.2 tablespoon nutritional yeast, 3 tablespoon water
- Drain and rinse the jackfruit. Remove the seeds (round/bulb shaped bits), and the core (the pineapple-like, hard part) - you can discard these bits if you don’t like the texture (they can be a bit tough).400 g jackfruit
- Pop a splash of oil in a frying pan, once hot, add in the jackfruit.1 tablespoon olive oil
- Add in the garlic granules and then pour in the BBQ sauce.0.5 teaspoon garlic granules, 5 tablespoon BBQ sauce
- Stir well and gently cook for around 8-10 minutes, stirring regularly. The BBQ jackfruit should turn into a sticky mixture. Use the stirring spoon to encourage the jackfruit pieces to break apart into smaller pieces, along the strands. Set aside once ready.
- Remove all packaging from the pizza base and lay out onto a tray or pizza tray. If the pizza base has parchment paper underneath it, it’s often easier to leave it on. Meaning you won’t need to grease or line your tray!400 g vegan pizza dough
- Evenly spread the cauliflower sauce on the pizza base. All of the cauliflower creamy sauce will spread out and cover the base generously
- Place the pulled jackfruit, red onion and jalapeños on the pizza, spread all of them out evenly.½ red onion, 2 tablespoon jalapeños
- Place the jackfruit pizza in the oven for around 15 minutes - or until the edges of the pizza go golden. Optionally, top with cashew parmesan or vegan parmesan.cashew 'parmesan'
Notes
- It keeps well in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Place parchment paper between each pizza slice if stacked.
- Can be frozen for up to 3 months (check that your shop-bought pizza base can be frozen).
- If your canned jackfruit is a little tough, cook for 5-10 minutes longer on a medium heat.
- Try adding vegan cheese, slices of tomato, sweetcorn or even the ultimate love/hate pizza topping – chunks of pineapple!
- Make it gluten free by using a shop bought GF pizza base. Double check the BBQ sauce is gluten free (most are).
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