Search
Search
Close this search box.

Vegan Kluwe

Kluwe/Kluweh/Kluwih is a Javanese dish made from young chestnut. It is made in a Santen! This means it uses Kunir/ Turmeric/ Hardi (so many names for 1 spice! Haha) and coconut milk to create a delicious sauce. The fruits must still be so young that the crusts around the seeds are still very soft (white) and therefore edible.

Unfortunately, one of the fruits I had was not that young anymore, the crusts were already brown and hard. No worries! Just peel it while eating.

Kluwih ( Artocarpus camansi ) is the name of a kind of perennial tree whose fruit has tough and prickly skin. The fruit is similar to breadfruit, but it has more prominent prickly seeds and skin. The local name in Sundanese is kulur or arise.

Artocarpus camansi, the breadnut, is a species of medium-sized tree in the family Moraceae. It is native to New Guinea, the Maluku Islands, and the Philippines. It is a wild ancestor of the breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis). Sometimes it is also known as “the seeded breadfruit”. Just to distinguish it from its mostly seedless descendants. Breadnut fruits are edible when cooked. The large seeds can also be roasted on an open fire, peeled, and then eaten.

A little history

The species was first described in Flora de Filipinas. Según el sistema sexual de Linneo (1837) by the Spanish friar and botanist Francisco Manuel Blanco from specimens in the Philippines. This specific name is derived from Tagalog kamansi (Philippine Spanish: camansi). It is a local name for the tree in the islands.

Other common names for the plant include: chataignecastaña ‘tropical’ (French and Spanish for the unrelated but culinarily similar chestnut), kastanje in Surinamekapiak in New Guinea, katahar in Guyana, kluwih in Indonesia, sukun biji in Malaysia, kos-del (කොස්දෙල් ) in Sri Lanka, pan de fruta in Dominican Republic (Spanish for its relative breadfruit), labapin in Haïti, and pana de pepita in Puerto Rico.

The recipe

Vegan Kluwe Recipe

Prep Time20 minutes
Cook Time40 minutes
Additional Time1 minute
Total Time1 hour 1 minute
Course: Recipes
Cuisine: Vegan & Gluten-Free
Calories: 396kcal

Ingredients

  • 1 large onion chopped
  • 5 cloves of garlic finely chopped
  • 5 cm laos sliced
  • 4 salam leaves
  • 4 kaffir lime leaves optional
  • 2 tablespoons of cooking oil for cooking
  • Edible oil to lubricate hands knife, and cutting board (see step 1)
  • 2 teaspoons of salt
  • 2 teaspoons of kunir powder
  • 1 teaspoon of ground black pepper
  • 2 blocks of tempeh cut into cubes of 1 by 1 cm
  • 2 Young chestnuts
  • 1 large tin of soft-boiled black eyed peas drained weight 480g
  • 400 ml coconut milk
  • 2 liters of water approximately

Instructions

  • Cut the fruit in half lengthwise twice, remove the ‘midrib’ and the skins. The pulp consisting of seeds and fiber is used in the dish. You can crumble this by hand or cut it into pieces (approximately 2 by 2 cm). Note that there is tar (white and sticky) on the fruit. To prevent it from sticking, you can rub your hands, the knife, and the cutting board well with some cooking oil beforehand.


  • Heat a pan (preferably with a thick bottom). Add cooking oil. Then add onions, garlic, galangal, salam, and kaffir lime and fry for 3 minutes.
  • Add the tempeh to the pan, toss from time to time until it is slightly yellowish-brown.
  • Add the herbs (kunir, black pepper, and salt) as well as the chestnut. Turn it all over. Pour some water into the pot approximately one centimeter below the contents of the pot. Cover the pot and simmer for 20 minutes on medium heat. Check every now and then and shake if necessary.
  • Check whether the fibers and seeds have softened. Add the black-eyed peas and coconut milk and toss. Let it simmer for another 10 minutes without a lid on the pot so that it can evaporate a bit. Check the taste and finish if necessary.

Video

Notes

It can be eaten on its own, but also with rice. In Surinamese Javanese cuisine, it is often eaten with Lontong. These are rice cubes made from very soft boiled rice (sometimes boiled with salt and pandan for taste), which is pounded (with a mortar), flattened in a baking tin, and cut into cubes (1 by 1 cm).
Vegan Kluwe
Serve it with Madame Jeanette pepper flakes and moringa powder on top!

Share this post:

Get our best recipes & expert tips right into your inbox!

Join over 10k subscribers

By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy.

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.