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I worked my butt off to make this Ginataang Langka recipe have the most meaty texture possible. With very simple ingredients, it's all in the technique to turn jackfruit into a perfectly seasoned curry that is better than pork. The pigs, and over 400 recipe testers from all around the world agree: This Filipino dish is insanely yummy.
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Recipe tips tailored to what matters most to you:
Nothing in this pan has ever met wheat. The only label worth a glance is your vegetable stock, since some boxed broths and bouillon cubes can hide wheat.
Cook it a day ahead. It keeps 4 days and reheats on the stovetop, just hit it with fresh cilantro and scallions to make it look lively again.
Boil your own stock from onions, carrots and celery with a bay leaf. Lime juice instead of calamansi, and boring ol' brown sugar instead of palm sugar.
Stir a cup of chopped moringa leaves or spinach in with the ginger, garlic and chilies.
Jalapeño covers for the green chilies, lime covers the calamansi, brown sugar subs in for the palm sugar.
Getting as much water out of the raw jackfruit as possible helps it to brown thoroughly. But try not to obliterate the pieces when you squeeze them.
Don't rush the browning process. Cook the jackfruit pieces over medium-high heat for the full 8 to 9 minutes until they're well-browned on all sides.
For me the heat level in this recipe is perfect. But if you are more of a normal person, you might want to cut back by a chili or two.
Oodles more tips, step-by-step recipe photos, info on weird ingredients, and FAQs are all still here. I just tucked 'em out of the way so you can start cooking sooner.
I know, I know. I already have an insanely good jackfruit tamale recipe. The kathal sabji recipe on my blog is phenomenal. But for real, THIS simple langka recipe is my favorite jackfruit recipe on the whole site? Really? Yes, really.
Creamy, slightly sweet, and has a flavorful little kick from the green chilies. I've been fine-tuning this ginataang langka recipe to make it the easiest and most delicious version out there! I tried it with coconut cream, which I thought was a bit to heavy and rich, so in the final version I am sharing with you, the canned coconut milk gravy is balanced and made more flavorful with a little vegetable stock. And, by golly, the result is seriously stunning and hard to stop eating!
I made this for my wife, who is from the Philippines. She told me it was the best thing I ever cooked for her. Thank you for the recipe. I look forward to cooing it many more times.
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🥰Why you'll adore this ginataang langka recipe
✊ Vegan AF & GF: Like all of my vegan Filipino recipes, this one doesn't require any shrimp paste, fish sauce, pork, or other such animal products. Oh whats that? You are on the hunt for gluten-free vegan recipes that will blow people's minds? Well, that's this one!
⏱ Quick and Easy: Minimal prep, one pan, and straightforward steps make it a breeze to whip up. And it's ready in under thirty minutes? Yes, pls!
🛒 Easy-to-Find Ingredients: Unlike soya chaap sabji and other curries I sometimes share recipes for, this one isn't going to make you run out to an Asian grocery store.
✅ Tested and Approved Worldwide: Like all the vegan recipes I share, after tweaking and perfecting it, I shared it with a giant team of recipe testers who replicated it successfully all around the world.
I'm on my knees staring weirdly into your eyes, asking you in a soothing voice to be my taste-testing partner in crime. Sign up for the recipe testing crew and get early access to new recipes before they're published.
🌶️ Ingredients
Young Green Jackfruit
Called langka in Tagalog, the Filipino language, young green jackfruit is a great meat substitute with a hearty dose of fiber, protein, and minerals. Especially when the unripe jackfruit is drained and squeezed, it has a meaty texture perfect for recipes like my adobong sitaw and vegan drumsticks. Not into jackfruit? You can also make this recipe using 2 cups of my vegan chicken in its place.
Make sure you use the young jackfruit in brine, not the sweet yellow mature fruit, which is better to save for making turon with, and will make this dish come out super weird.
Green Chili Pepper
I make this recipe with small green chilies because they are flavorful, and I usually have them on hand for making tons of Indian recipes like hari mirch achar, Indonesian sambal dabu dabu, and vegan tikka masala. If you can't get hari mirch chilies, you can also use jalapeños to make this recipe.
Sugar
Balancing the acidity of the calamansi or lime juice, I opt for natural sweeteners any day over refined sugar. Palm sugar, AKA gula melaka" is my #1 choice and is also great for making Filipino sweets like tupig, karioka, and suman malagkit. But if palm sugar isn't already in your pantry, coconut sugar, or boring ol' brown sugar will work great in this recipe too.
Calamansi
Calamansi is a citrus found all around Southeast Asia. It provides a tangy brightness that cuts through the richness of the coconut cream. I use it in a ton of dishes that I serve at my Galactic MegaStallion pop ups like tofu sisig. Lime or lemon juice works well if calamansi is not available.
Unsalted Vegetable Broth
To make this dish a little less rich, I cut the coconut milk with some vegetable stock. I usually make mine my just boiling onions, carrots and celery, perhaps some garlic and bay leaves. Totally unsalted stock is hard to find at stores, so if you have to go with a salted one, just make sure to taste the dish before adding salt, and modify the amount of it as needed.
*See the recipe card at the bottom of the page for exact quantities, nutritional info, and detailed cooking directions.
🤯Variations
Langka At Malunggay
Moringa (the same plant that drumstick comes from, a nourishing addition to arhar dal tadka, and red lentil dal) is called malunggay in the Philippines. During the saucing of the ginger, chilies and garlic, add 1 cup of chopped moringa leaves, which makes this dish seriously amazing for you, albeit a wee bit more bitter.
Lemongrass Langka
While not available everywhere, some lemongrass really does unlock a new level of this dish! Like I do for making the Filipino greens dish laing, or Indonesian sambal goreng tempeh, I like to just back some fresh lemongrass stalks to allow the oils to more easily enter the sauce. Just add it to the pan when you add the onions so it has plenty of time to unleash it's flavorful glory into the gravy.
If you can't get fresh lemongrass, powdered lemongrass is really handy for making this variation, or dishes like my vegan banh mi and tempe mendoan.
Grab my easy-yo-use app that builds your whole week with real, chef-tested vegan dinners in 30 seconds, customized to your budget, time, and taste, with a shopping list sorted by aisle.
📖 How to make ginataang langka
Nail this Filipino jackfruit recipe on your first shot by following these step-by-step photos with helpful tips. Or scroll down to the bottom of this page for the easy-to-print recipe card.
Step One
Hit the Road, Jack:
Squeeze the drained jackfruit in a colander or mesh strainer to break up the pieces and remove excess liquid.
✅The more extra liquid you can squeeze out without totally obliterating the jackfruit, the better the texture will be as it browns and simmers.
Step Two
For Sizzle my Nizzle:
Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. After 90 seconds, when the oil is hot, add the jackfruit and cook for 8- 9 minutes, flipping occasionally, until browned on all sides.
Step Three
Onions and Dragons:
Add the diced onion to the skillet and sauté for 4 minutes over medium heat until translucent.
Step Four
Aromatic Fanatic:
Stir in the grated ginger, minced garlic, and green chilies, and sauté for 2 minutes over medium heat, just until fragrant.
✅ Not a spice freak like me? Slow your roll with the chilies to make this just spicy enough for your taste.
Step Five
Sim Simmer, Who's Got the Keys to My Bimmer?
Add the sugar, calamansi or lime juice, vegetable broth, and coconut milk. Reduce the heat to low, and simmer for 8 minutes until the jackfruit is tender and most (not all!) of the liquid has been absorbed or evaporated.
✅ Fun fact: ginataang mean "cooked in coconut milk", which is why it is in the name of so many Filipino dishes like ginataang gulay and ginataang kalabasa.
Step Six
Protect & Serve:
Transfer to an attractive serving dish and optionally garnish with sliced green chilies, cilantro leaves, and thinly sliced scallions or chives before serving.
💡How to serve it
Stop eating this all by itself (I mean, it's not bad that way either tho). But your ginataang langka with a spread of delightful Southeast Asian vegan dishes? That's what I am talking about here.
Whip up some ensaladang talong, smokey charred eggplant salad. Or rock it out with classics from the Philippines like vegetable okoy, tokwa't baboy, and ensaladang pipino. Serve the langka with atchara over sinangag (Filipino garlic fried rice).
Want a downright bangin' dessert to go with this that also isn't crazy heavy? Buko pandan, ube pancakes, or sago gulaman might be just your thingy.
👉Top tips
- Drain and Squeeze Jackfruit Well: Getting as much water out of the raw jackfruit as possible helps it to brown thoroughly. But try not to obliterate the pieces when you squeeze them so that there are still nice bite sized chunks.
- Brown the Jackfruit Properly
Don't rush the browning process. Cook the jackfruit pieces over medium-high heat for the full 8 to 9 minutes until they're well-browned on all sides. This makes the jackfruit have an even better texture once simmered in the coconut milk. - Tweak Heat to your Taste: For me the heat level in this recipe is perfect. But if you are more of a normal person who doesn't spend their day recipe testing sriracha recipes, and sambal oelek, you might want to cut back by a chili or two.
🤷♀️ FAQs
Yes, you can use fresh unripe jackfruit, but make sure it's young and green. Peel, core, and shred it before using.
You can use lime juice or lemon juice as a substitute for calamansi juice. Even white vinegar, rice vinegar or apple cider vinegar can be used, though they will not have calamansi's lovely citrus undertones.
For sure! If you live somewhere with access to fresh, young coconuts, just blend the water with the coconut meat and pass it through a fine mesh strainer. This coconut milk will have more of a sweet taste than a canned one, so taste the recipe before adding sugar, because it might not even need any!
🥶Refrigerating:
Store ginataang langka in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Ensure it is cooled completely before refrigerating. It will keep well for up to 4 days.
❄️Freezing:
To freeze, transfer the cooled ginataang langka into a freezer-safe container. Leave some space at the top for expansion. Seal tightly and freeze for up to 3 months.
🌡️Thawing:
When ready to eat, thaw the frozen ginataang langka in the refrigerator overnight.
🔥 Stovetop Reheating:
Transfer the thawed or refrigerated ginataang langka to a saucepan. Heat over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until heated through. Add a splash of vegetable broth, water, or coconut cream if it thickens too much.
⚡️ Microwave Reheating:
Place a portion of ginataang langka in a microwave-safe dish. Cover loosely with a microwave-safe lid or microwave-safe plate. Heat on high for 1-2 minutes, stirring halfway through, until heated through. Adjust heating time as needed based on your microwave's power.
🤏Final Garnish:
Especially when reheating leftover langka, it's important to give it a little garnish of fresh scallions, chives, cilantro, and/or chilies to freshen it up and make it look lively and sexy all over again. That way, no one will even know the vegetable side dish you just served them is just 200-year-old leftovers that you found in a chest freezer inside of a cobweb-ridden haunted house.
✌️My faves to serve with ginataang langka:
Learn to make absurdly good vegan food from the Philippines in a super-fun recorded cooking class with Chef Adam Sobel!
Ginataang Langka (Filipino Jackfruit in Coconut Milk)
Equipment
Ingredients
- 20 oz. young green jackfruit drained and squeezed
- 5 teaspoons olive oil
- 1 cup onion diced
- 1 teaspoon fresh ginger grated
- 1 tablespoon garlic minced
- 3 green chilies sliced (or 1 tablespoon jalapeño, minced))
- 1 tablespoon palm sugar coconut sugar, or brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon calamansi juice or lime juice
- 1 cup unsalted vegetable stock
- 1 cup coconut milk
- ¾ teaspoon salt or to taste
To Garnish:
- Sliced Green Chilies
- Cilantro leaves
- Thinly sliced scallions or chives
Instructions
- Squeeze the drained jackfruit in a colander or wire mesh strainer to break up the pieces and get rid of extra liquid.
- Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. After 90 seconds when the oil is hot, add the drained jackfruit and cook for 8-9 minutes, flipping the pieces around occasionally, until browned on all sides.
- Add the diced onion to the skillet and sauté for 4 minutes until translucent.
- Stir in the grated ginger, minced garlic, and green chilies, sautéing for an additional 2 minutes until fragrant.
- Add the sugar, calamansi (or lime) juice, vegetable broth (if you can't get unsalted broth, make sure to decrease the amount of salt you add), and coconut cream. Lower the heat to low, and simmer for 8 minutes to tenderize the jackfruit.
- Transfer to an attractive serving dish and optionally garnish with sliced green chilies, cilantro leaves, and thinly sliced scallions or chives before serving.
Notes
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h says
such an excellent recipe, and very straightforward! I was looking for something to do with a can of jackfruit I had as well as (for me) pantry staples, and this was perfect. looking forward to trying it with lemongrass and/or moringa (as noted in the variations section) next time.
Elke says
My only regret is that we didn't make a double recipe. Great dish!
Jeremy says
I made this for my wife, who is from the Philippines. She told me it was the best thing I ever cooked for her. Thank you for the recipe. I look forward to cooing it many more times.
hg says
Made this a few weeks ago. The jackfruit really takes on a meaty, chewy texture and tastes great with the underlying creamy coconut flavor.