Sweet and sour stir-fried pork, pineapple and greens with pumpkin and ginger rice noodles
Meat mains
Sweet and sour stir-fried pork, pineapple and greens with pumpkin and ginger rice noodles
Stir-fries are probably the ultimate healthy fast-food. We're using our organic pork stir-fry strips for speed, and have made the dish with rice noodles and tamari, a gluten-free soy sauce. The rice noodles are a pumpkin and ginger variety; they don't add a huge amount of ginger flavour, but are a lovely warm orange colour.
Cook's notes
The trick with stir-fries is to get your ingredients prepared, ready to throw into the pan at the last minute. With a sweet and sour dish, adjust and balance the flavours towards the end. Add more salt (tamari), sweet (sugar, or as here, pineapple juice) and sour (lime or lemon juice) to suit your taste.
Ingredients
- 200g spring greens
- piece fresh ginger
- 1 large or 2 small garlic cloves
- 1 chilli
- 1 lime
- 1 tin pineapple chunks
- good handful mixed sprouted seeds
- 2 sticks pumpkin and ginger rice noodles
- 300g stir-fry pork strips
- oil for frying to a high temp e.g. sunflower or coconut
- 50ml tamari, add to taste
- salt and pepper
Method
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Step 1
Put a large pan of water on to boil. While it heats up, wash the spring greens. Cut out the central tough ribs in thin 'v' shapes. Discard those. Lay the leaves on top of each other, roll into a fat cigar shape, then finely shred them.
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Step 2
Peel and finely grate the ginger. Peel and finely chop or crush 1 large or 2 small garlic cloves. Halve, deseed and finely chop the chilli. Juice the lime. Drain the tin of pineapple chunks, reserving the juice.
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Step 3
You need just half the pineapple, so keep the rest in the fridge and use for breakfast or as part of a fruit salad. Chop the pineapple pieces you're using in half, as they're quite large. Wash a good handful of the sprouted seeds.
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Step 4
Add the noodles to the pan of boiling water and cook for 4 minutes, stirring for the first 1 minute to stop them from sticking together. Once cooked, drain and run under cold water to cool them (this also stops them sticking).
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Step 5
Season the pork with a little salt and pepper. Heat a wok or frying pan with 2 tablespoons of oil. Add the pork and stir-fry for 2 minutes. Add the garlic, ginger, chilli, spring greens and stir-fry for 2 more minutes.
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Step 6
Add the pineapple chunks (half the tin's worth), half the tamari, 4 tablespoons of the reserved pineapple juice and stir to make a sauce. Add the sprouted seeds and noodles and stir to warm them through.
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Step 7
Adjust the sweet and sour balance of the dish by adding more lime juice and more tamari or pineapple juice to suit your taste. You want a sweet-sour flavour. Divide between 2 serving bowls.