Pork chops with a summer salad and peanut dressing

This recipe works equally well with pork chops or chicken breasts. Although the ingredient list looks long, it is so easy to prepare. Everything can be made ahead of time which makes it a great dish for entertaining.

Ingredients

• 2-4 pork chops and/or chicken breasts

For the marinade:

• 2 lemongrass sticks, outer leaves removed, cut into thirds (if you can’t find lemongrass, just omit it)
• 1 T peeled and roughly chopped ginger
• 1/2 red chili, deseeded and roughly chopped
• 1 garlic clove, roughly chopped
• 1 onion, roughly chopped
• 1 T fish sauce
• Small bunch cilantro
• Juice and grated zest of 1 lime
• 2 T peanut or olive oil

For the salad:

• 1/2 red or green pepper, quartered and thinly sliced
• 2 carrots, grated or julienned
• 10-12 oz. bean sprouts
• 1 stick celery, thinly sliced
• 1 small red onion, very finely sliced
• 4 T roughly chopped mint
• 5 T roughly chopped cilantro
• 1/2c. cashews, toasted
• 2 T sesame seeds, also toasted

For the dressing:

• 5 T peanut or olive oil
• 1 T soy sauce
• 2 T rice wine vinegar
• 1 T fish sauce
  
• Juice of 1/2 lime
• 1 t sugar
• Salt and pepper

Instructions

1. Put all the marinade ingredients in a food processor and blitz to a paste. Having a small processor like what comes with a good immersion blender is great for this.
2. Cover the pork or chicken in the paste and refrigerate overnight or for a minimum of 2 hours.
3. To make the dressing, put all the ingredients except the salt and pepper into a jar with a tight-fitting lid; cover and shake well. Season to taste.
4. Grill or pan fry the meat until cooked how you like it – chicken should be around 165. We personally prefer pork medium (135). Let rest for covered for 5-10 minutes. Read our recommendations on preparing perfect organic pork chops.
5. Put all the salad ingredients except the nuts and seeds into a bowl and mix with the prepared dressing.
6. Sprinkle the nuts and seeds over the dressing and serve with the chicken or pork on top