Something special: Pulled pork with dirty quinoa

A guaranteed weekend dinner party crowd-pleaser, this melt-in-your-mouth pork and quinoa dish is incredibly filling and packed with taste. Incidentally – it’s a double serving of protein and super low in carbs.

Serves 6

1 tbsp ground cumin
1 tbsp ground coriander
1 tsp chilli powder
½ tbsp salt, plus extra
Grated zest and juice of 1 orange
1kg well-marbled pork shoulder, cut into matchbook-size pieces
2 tbsp olive oil
4 ripe peaches, pitted and chopped, or 220g tinned peaches, drained
375ml ginger ale (or water)
85g white quinoa, rinsed
85g red or black quinoa, rinsed
375ml chicken stock
1 tbsp ground cumin
1 x 400g tin brown lentils, rinsed, drained
Salt
Handful of coriander
Piquant hot sauce and/or cabbage slaw

Method

1 Mix together the spices, salt and orange zest and roll the pork in it.

2 Heat oil in a large heavy-based pan over high heat. Add half the meat, brown all over, set aside; repeat. Return meat to pan with orange juice and peaches. Add enough ginger ale to cover the meat (top up with water if you need more liquid). Bring to a rolling boil; reduce heat to a simmer; cook, uncovered, for 2 hours.

3 Check the meat; it should easily shred with 2 forks. It not, it might need a further 30 mins or so.

4 About 20 mins before serving, put the quinoa, stock and cumin in a saucepan, bring to the boil; reduce the heat. Simmer with the lid on for 15 minutes, or until most of the liquid has been absorbed. Fold in lentils, season with salt and top with chopped coriander.

5 When the pork is ready, shred it with 2 forks and toss it with the remaining juices.

6 Serve the pork with the dirty quinoa, piquant hot sauce – and, if you fancy, a slaw of shredded cabbage dressed with apple cider vinegar.

Pulled pork with dirty quinoa is from Cut The Carbs! by Tori Haschka (Quadrille, £30). Photography by Chris Chen.

Summary

Recipe Name

Pulled Pork with Dirty Quinoa

Author Name

Healthy Magazine

Published On

2015-01-30

Cook Time

2H15M