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Monday, December 6, 2010

Pork, Cranberry and Pear Salad

Oh boy! I just had the best dinner! In order to properly feed myself, and make my mom happy, I decided to make a real dinner. My mom is slightly concerned with my wacky eating habits of late. Let’s just say yesterday for breakfast I had a slice of chocolate tart. For breakfast this morning I had some cookies. Several nights last week dinner consisted of lettuce.

Now it’s not that I’m a bad eater, it’s just that there was no food in my house! I returned from my thanksgiving vacation Monday afternoon to a slice of bread and some far-past expiration milk. There were a few onions and maybe some mustard. It was a sad state of affairs. This is how things usually are when I return from a trip, except this time I came back with a cold. It slowly took over and made me lazier and lazier. I managed to buy some milk and cereal from the Dollar General across the street, but beyond that, I had eggs.

After some concern from my mom (talking about protein and nutrients) I decided I should probably go to the grocery store. Armed with this recipe, I bought my ingredients, substituting here and there for what was one sale (I’m cheap too!). I was not disappointed; this was the best meal I had in a while. Please enjoy, and eat your vegetables!


Pork, Cranberry and Pear Salad

1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 tbsp cider vinegar
1 tsp brown sugar
2 tsp garlic, minced
2 tsp thyme
1 lb pork chops
½ tsp coarse salt
½ tsp black pepper
2 tbsp flour
Olive oil
¼ cup shallots, sliced thinly
¼ cup dried pomegranate flavored cranberries (or plain ones)
¼ cup pomegranate-cherry juice drink (or cranberry)
6 cups spinach (baby or regular)
1 ripe red pear, sliced

In a small bowl, mix together mustard, vinegar, brown sugar, 1 tsp garlic, 1 tsp thyme and set aside.

Mix together 1 tsp garlic, 1 tsp thyme, ½ tsp salt, ½ tsp black pepper. Rub this mixture over the pork chops (both sides!). Sprinkle with flour and toss to coat, set aside for 5 minutes.

Heat some olive oil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add shallots and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 3 minutes. They should be soft and browned. Add cranberries and pomegranate juice and allow to cook down until there is only 2 tbsp liquid remaining. Reduce heat to medium-low and add mustard mixture, cook for an additional minute. Add 1 tbsp olive oil, ½ tsp salt and ½ tsp black pepper.

Heat some olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add pork and cook for about 5 minutes on each side. Remove from heat and allow to sit for 2-3 minutes.

In a large bowl, toss spinach with 1/3 of the cranberry mixture. Divide spinach among 4 plates. Slice the pork chops and lay one atop each bed of spinach. Pour remaining cranberry mixture over the pork, dividing evenly among the plates.  Devour!


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10 comments:

  1. This sounds really good! I think I just found dinner for tonight!

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  2. Mmmm - the pork w/the onions and cranberries sitting on top of it looks so succulent. Beautiful dish!

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  3. That looks really good! I'm having a similar dilema and just had a chocolate bar and a handful of goji berries for lunch because there's no real food in the fridge. It's too cold to go out though.... This definitely looks like it's worth venturing to the grocery store for though!

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  4. Yuummmm you eating well looks heavenly!!!

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  5. Well, that gorgeous salad ought to remedy the week of tarts for breakfast and lettuce for dinner!

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  6. ummmm what a juicy and delicious dish! The picture is so stunning :)

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  7. Wow.. this looks like an amazing dinner. When can I come over?? The colors alone are mouthwatering.

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