Crunchy home made vegan nuggets made with jackfruit and chickpeas, a tasty savoury snack or child-friendly dinner idea.

Hello my friends. Spring has sprung here in the southern hemisphere and I couldn't be happier. As I write this at my desk, the door to our back yard is open and a gentle breeze is directing the heady fragrance of grapefruit blossoms my way. Our ancient but huge grapefruit tree is in full flower, swarming with happy bees and it's absolutely glorious.

Behind the grapefruit tree are my vegetable gardens, with newly planted seedlings all in a row, representing both the hard physical work of getting the gardens ready for spring and the promise of screamingly fresh homegrown produce to come. This year I'm growing a variety of heirloom tomatoes, eggplants, chillies, capsicums, courgettes, carrots, radishes, cucumbers, lettuce and plenty of herbs. It's been a joy to get back into the garden, which I always find very grounding and calming.

My girls have been enjoying helping choose what to plant and doing the odd bit of watering (funny how they were less interested in digging in the compost... hmm). This week I decided to do some experimentation in the kitchen that was fully focused on them.

I make home made burgers often, but haven't ventured into nugget territory despite store bought vegan nuggets being very popular with the little people. So I decided it was time.

What makes a good vege nugget?

Good question isn't it? I thought about this for a few days. I think a good vegan nugget needs to:

be moist inside, but not mushy
have some texture
have a crunchy exterior
taste generally savoury, but not strongly flavoured with a particular herb or spice
not be a variation on falafel
not be a variation on a vege burger
stack up nutritionally and include some protein
be easy to make.

Would you agree?

Jackfruit and chickpeas for the win

Jackfruit is a massive, spiky, tropical fruit available throughout Asia. Unripe or green jackfruit is a darling of the plant-based eating world for its texture and ability to mimic meat in a range of dishes.

Outside of Asia it’s available canned from Asian grocers and an increasing number of regular supermarkets. Be careful to buy young, unripe jackfruit in water or brine – not ripe jackfruit in syrup, which is delicious but not useful in recipes like this.

I really enjoy jackfruit and love playing around with it. It takes on other flavours easily, and the texture is really quite unique.

I knew jackfruit could provide the moisture and texture I wanted to see in a home made vegan nugget, but by itself, it wouldn't deliver on nutrition as it's low in protein - it is fruit, after all.

Canned chickpeas are a store cupboard staple for us, so they were my first choice as a plant-based protein addition to this nugget recipe. I didn't need to look any further.

Roughly processed to a chunky texture and combined with shredded jackfruit, chickpea flour, aquafaba and seasonings, the chickpeas add just the right amount of texture, flavour and protein to these nuggets.

For flavouring, I used garlic, miso paste, apple cider vinegar, just a little turmeric and dried sage, and a few drops of liquid smoke. Together these ingredients are warming and savoury without leaning too far in any particular direction. The liquid smoke is optional and can easily be left out, but I do think it rounds out the flavours perfectly.

In New Zealand you can buy liquid smoke from The Cruelty Free Shop, and if you’re elsewhere Amazon is your friend. Not sure about liquid smoke? Read more about it in my vegan jackfruit kedgeree recipe post.

A perfect golden coating

Any self respecting nugget needs a perfect golden coating. I pre-toasted some panko crumbs to a uniform golden colour, before using them to crumb coat the nuggets. This little trick makes a big difference to the look of the final product.

For the best results, I recommend shallow frying the nuggets in a neutral oil until crisp and golden brown. They can also be sprayed with oil and oven baked. Oven baking works well, but takes longer to achieve the same crispy outer, and the longer cooking time dries out the inside a little.

Either way they're cooked, my little people enjoyed these a lot. I did have to do a bit of explaining to the little one, who felt they looked too much like actual chicken nuggets. Is that a win or a fail?

We served these vege nuggets with a big salad, tomato sauce (ketchup) and aioli for dipping. Delicious.

Get the recipe