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Beetroot and Jackfruit Salad with Crispy Shallots and Streetside Roast Peanuts

I love Jamaican streetside roast peanuts. “Peanut men”, as we affectionately call them are all over busy streets selling fresh roasted locally grown peanuts from specially engineered carts with built-in makeshift ovens. You can hear them from the whistling steam emanating from their carts or they shout “Peaanuuuuts…..peanut man, peeannutts!” When that whiff of roasted peanuts hits you, your mouth automatically salivates as you are handed hot peanuts wrapped in cone-shaped brown paper. This reminds me of hot chestnuts during the winter in the UK and Europe. Nutty aromas invoke such happy warm feelings inside me. This recipe came along, like many others, out of throwing stuff together one evening from leftover jackfruit, beets and herbs in the fridge, tossing my streetside peanuts over them for added crunch and protein when I was feeling too tired to cook and I thought hmmm, this would make an interesting salad.

Ingredients:

  • 4 medium beets, boiled, peeled and sliced and cooled
  • Sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
  • 12 freshly picked pegs from a ripe jackfruit
  • 2 shallots, finely sliced
  • 3 tbsp vegetable oil
  • 2 tbsp seasoned rice wine vinegar
  • Basil leaves, for garnish
  • Mint, for garnish
  • Cilantro, for garnish
  • Roasted peanuts, for garnish

Method:

  1. Fry the shallots in oil until crispy, set aside to drain on paper towels and reserve the oil.
  2. Layer the beets on a platter and season with salt and pepper to taste.
  3. Scatter over the jackfruit pieces and the herbs on top.
  4. Use the reserved shallot oil and mix with the rice wine vinegar.
  5. Drizzle over salad, top with peanuts and crispy shallots and serve.


Jacqui ‘JuicyChef’ Sinclair, founder of Nyam & Trod, is a British Jamaican award-winning chef, writer, and food culturist. She is a co-founder of Kingston Kitchen, an annual food event supporting food artisans. Jacqui has been an advocate of the Meatless Monday Global movement in Jamaica since 2011.  Jacqui’s work has been featured in such publications as the Huffington Post, the Jamaica Observer, Saveur, The Jewish Post and numerous blogs. She has appeared on the Travel Channel’s ‘Bizarre Foods’ with Andrew Zimmern and Food & Wine’s Jamaica episode with Kwame Onwuachi.