Chef Kunal Kapur shares ‘easy hack’ to cut complex fruits and vegetables like jackfruit, coconut, broccoli, and cabbage

The coconut trick

Kapur starts with a coconut, a fruit many hesitate to buy unless someone else cracks it for them.

“If you’re in South India, it’s no problem. But in the North, many people worry about how to open it and how to get the whole thing out when they want to make chutney,” he says.

His hack relies on using the coconut’s natural structure. “A coconut has three natural lines. All you need to do is firmly tap along these lines, and not on the front or back, but directly on each line: one, two, three.” The shell cracks cleanly, letting the water drain out.

He then flames the shell for 2-3 minutes so “the outer thread will burn”, and the heated shell helps the flesh separate. Once cooled in water, “with the help of a peeler, we can peel it… and now, this coconut… You can cut it any way you want.”

How to cut broccoli with zero wastage

Broccoli often leads to unnecessary waste, Kapur says. “The most beautiful thing about broccoli is its floret, and its stalk… the stalk of broccoli is also very important. And you can eat it raw too.”

 

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Instead of chopping the florets from the top, he advises cutting along the stalk and rotating the vegetable: “Keep rotating it, and its florets will automatically separate… and see the wastage… nothing. Almost nothing.”

He also demonstrates peeling the thick stalk so it can be sliced, diced or eaten raw. “Actually… the stalk inside it is tastier than this broccoli. I believe. Try it.”

Clean, precise cabbage cuts

For cabbage, Kapur begins by removing the loose outer leaves. Then he focuses on “the stem in the middle… using a knife and a top-down motion to separate it.” Once the hard core is removed, he flattens the leaves to shred them finely.

For diced cabbage, he cuts thicker strips and turns them crosswise. “See this. This is diced cabbage.”

Conquering the sticky jackfruit (kathal)

Jackfruit’s sticky sap is what scares most people, Kapur acknowledges. His method begins with cold water mixed with salt and turmeric to prevent blackening. Then, he oils only the non-dominant hand and the knife blade.

The key is patience: “This white, like a glue, thing that comes out, is basically its defence mechanism…” He lets the sticky latex drip out, scrapes it, and continues cutting. Once the jackfruit is broken down into chunks, it goes straight into the cold water.

After 10 minutes, it’s ready to cook. Kapur adds, “Don’t be afraid of a big knife… follow the right method, and see, it’s very easy, it will be fun, to cut kathal.”