Thursday, April 24, 2008

Healthy & Fast

The other day while running errands, I picked up a copy of the most recent EVERYDAY FOOD. There looked to be several recipes that sounded interesting and I've been a tiny bit of a rut. I started with a recipe that seems pretty healthy, at least in terms of lots of veggies and low in fat.

Let's get started shall we?


I used one red pepper, 1/2 pound of green beans and a few carrots. All cut into similiar sizes, the seasoned with a little olive oil, soy sauce and salt and pepper.

I then put a pork tenderloin on top of the veggies and seasoned with salt and pepper and a drizzle of honey.

Here's half of the pork tenderloin after if spent some time under the broiler. Slice thin, plate with veggies, rice and a sauce made of soy sauce and honey. YUM.

The plate. The pork was great. Could have cooked for an extra minute. The beans and carrots were good. I didn't like the peppers. The recipe called for pea pods and green onions instead of the green beans, but this was easier for me to get at the store. And we prefer green beans to pea pods.


The Recipe:

Broiled Soy-Glazed Pork with Rice and Asian Vegetables

Serves 4

1 ½ cups long-grain white rice
8 ounces snow peas, trimmed
2 medium carrots, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced on the diagonal
2 red bell peppers (ribs and seeds removed), thinly sliced
1 bunch scallions, ends trimmed, cut crosswise into 3-inch lengths
2 TB vegetable oil, such as safflower
¼ cup soy sauce
Coarse salt and ground pepper
1 pork tenderloin (1 to 1 ¼ pounds), halved crosswise
¼ cup honey

Cook rice according to package instructions; cover, and set aside. Meanwhile, heat broiler, with rack set 4 inches from heat. On a large rimmed baking sheet, toss snow peas, carrots, bell peppers, and scallions with oil and 2 tablespoons soy sauce; season with salt and pepper.

Place pork on top of vegetables, and season with salt, pepper, and 1 tablespoon honey. Broil until pork and vegetables begin to char, 6 to 8 minutes. Toss vegetables, and turn pork; drizzle pork with 1 tablespoon honey.

Continue to broil until an instant-read thermometer inserted in thickest part of pork registers 145 degrees and vegetables are charred in spots, 6 to 8 minutes, tossing vegetables once more. Remove from broiler. Cover with aluminum foil, and let rest, 10 minutes.

In a small bowl, make sauce: Stir together remaining 2 tablespoons soy sauce and honey. Thinly slice pork, and serve with vegetables, rice, and sauce.


NOTES: As noted, I used green beans instead of pea pods. I also used olive oil instead of vegetable oil. I didn't measure any of the ingredients. This is a good recipe to eyeball what you add. And the cooking time. This could just be my broiler, but 6-8 minutes wasn't enough. I think once my broiler gets HOT, it shuts off for a minute or two to keep the temperature even. I cooked the tenderloin an extra 5 minutes, after removing the veggies...I could have gone another few minutes...there were sections in the middle that were just barely cooked. The food police would not have been happy...that said, the pork was very tender, super juicy and with the honey/soy flavors, very tasty.

3 comments:

Lauren said...

Hey Scott-
the vegetables look very delicious.

I think if I were to try my own version of this asian inspired dish, since I don't eat pork, I would go with a healthier meat, like chicken; and would go for brown rice for the added nutritional benefits of whole grain, instead of the white kind.

However I LOVE the combination of the soy sauce and honey though, I wonder how it would would be with a little crushed red pepper and garlic added in?

ScottE. said...

Lauren, great idea...

Hot pepper and garlic would be GREAT additions to this dish. Plus some ginger...NEXT TIME!!!!

The pork tenderloin, when trimmed up properly is a pretty lean cut of meat, about 3 grams of fat per 3 oz serving...but chicken would be nice as well. I'm not much of a fish eater, but I'm sure a firm cut of fish would hold up great.

Dancer in DC said...

I agree - the peppers didn't quite work, presumably because they are thinner and cook at a different rate. But the carrots matched the sweetness of the honey nicely.

As for fish, I'm sure this would be great with salmon!