Can You Freeze Jackfruit: Top Tips & Tricks

If you have been fortunate enough to either pick a fresh Jackfruit or buy one from a local store you can appreciate that the size and volume of the fruit is substantially large. You are probably not going to be able to consume it all in a few sittings, especially some of the bigger varieties, which can grow and weigh upto 10 to 25kgs. So, you may be interested to find out if you can freeze your Jackfruit.

Jackfruit can be frozen in your freezer for upto 2 months. It will retain most of its health benefits, however it will need to be cut first, and wrapped in plastic wrap or placed into an airtight container before freezing. Individual Jackfruit arils can be frozen individually before being placed together into an airtight container to ensure they dont clump together.

Please read on as we show you in full detail how to prepare your Jackfruit for freezing, how to individually freeze the arils to make it easier for you to unfreeze only what you want to use, and some additional tips and tricks that you must know.

But before you freeze your Jackfruit, you will need to prepare it so that you only have the arils and not the skin. To do this you will need to cut your jackfruit.

How Do You Cut Jackfruit?

Jackfruit contains a great deal of latex, a sticky sap, so you will need to use gloves and some some oil, such as coconut oil or olive oil, on your knife. This will help the knife slip through the skin and latex more easily.

Starting at the top of the fruit you will want to make an incision, about 2cm deep, and then in a spiral direction work your way down to the bottom of the fruit. In this way the spiral sections can be easily pulled away from the fruit exposing the arils.

For a video showing you the complete process please take a look at our article: How To Ripen Jackfruit and scroll down to the section entitled ‘How To Cut Jackfruit’ for the detailed step by step process along with a video demonstration. It will show you a really cool trick to removing the skin and getting to the fruit quickly and easily.

The arils can then be pulled away from the stem, and seeds removed. Once removed you can then begin prepare the Jackfruit arils for freezing.

How Do You Freeze Jackfruit?

1. To freeze Jackfruit you will need to prepare the Jackfruit arils by placing them on a baking sheet spaced apart and then place the baking sheet into your freezer for 2 hours or until each aril is frozen.

This will prevent the arils from clumping together in a lump when you place them into a plastic bag or airtight container. It makes it easier, so that when you want to use your frozen Jackfruit you can just take what you need for each meal.

2. Place the frozen fruit into a plastic bag or airtight container making sure each aril is only one layer deep, to again prevent clumping together while in the freezer. Use as many freezer bags as neccessary to freeze all of the fruit you have. Each plastic bag or airtight container can be placed on top of each other in the freezer.

Just take what you need when you want to use your frozen Jackfruit, and you will be able to easily thaw only what you want to use.

How Do You Use Frozen Jackfruit?

You can use frozen Jackfruit in many dishes that require cooking, such as subzi, which is an Indian recipe made with only four ingredients, onion, garlic, red chilli’s and frozen Jackfruit, and is quick and easy to prepare.

Check out the recipe here:

You will need to ensure though that when you froze your jackfruit, you had already removed the seeds. It would also be an advatage if you had sliced your Jackfruit into smaller pieces before freezing to ensure that they will cook faster from a frozen state.

Its important to note that you will need to use young green jackfruit if you want to use in your cooking as they are more suited to absorbing the flavours and spices. Ripe Jackfruit is best thawed and eaten uncooked.

Once you have thawed your Jackfruit you will not want to refreeze again as this will encourage bacterial growth and also make the Jackfruit too mushy.

What Does Frozen Jackfruit Taste Like?

Frozen Jackfruit is not as crispy as raw unfrozen fresh jackfruit. You will still need to thaw your frozen jackfruit first before eating. It will also be a little more mushy then fresh Jackfruit as it will have absorbed more moisture with the freezing process.

However, frozen Jackfruit is still very good for you as freezing preserves most of the nutrients that you would get in fresh Jackfruit.

Is Frozen Jackfruit Better Than Canned?

Frozen Jackfruit is better than canned, but not as good as fresh.

Fresh, frozen and canned all contain the same amount of fibre, and have similar nutrtional properties.^[1]

However, when buying canned be aware of added salt and preservatives. Always check the ingredients to make sure that it is canned in water and not syrup which contains added sugar. It is also preferable to buy organic canned jackfruit, weather young green Jackfruit used in cooking or ripe Jackfruit used as a dessert.

Should Jackfruit Be Refrigerated?

Jackfruit does not have to be refrigerated if consumed within a day or two, if it is fresh. If Jackfruit is unripe and still uncut in its skin then it should last for about a week without needing to be refrigerated. If the unripe Jackfruit is opened then it will last a couple of days unrefrigerated.

This is because of the natural decay process starts quicker in exposed fruits, that have there skins removed.

However if refrigerated fresh Jackfruit will last upto 7 days and unripe Jackfruit will last for 7 days to 14 days.

You can make Jackfruit a candy easily which will last a few months if either refrigerated or unrefrigerated or kept away from direct sunlight in a cool dry place.

To make it a candy, just submerge the fruit pieces in sugar syrup solutions of gradually increasing strength, then dry the fruit pieces. When soaking the Jackfruit the sugar is absorbed and the moisture is lost from the jackfruit.^[2]

You might also want to check out our article: Can You Freeze Pineapple