Recipe #18: Pork Chops with Quinoa & Roasted Red Pepper Dressing

In lieu of not posting last week, here is recipe #18.

I’ve been reading a lot about quinoa lately and seeing lots of new recipes popping up on the internet, in bookstores, even in my own office lunchroom. After flipping through one book in particular at Chapters, Quinoa 365: The Super Food, I was excited to try out some of the recipes. This grain isn’t just for side dishes, no sir! It can be used ground up to bake with, too! I’m on the waiting list at the library for this book (only 112^th in line), so when I get in my little hands, I might be baking up a storm.

Meanwhile, though, I thought I’d start small and try using quinoa as a nice side dish, and when I saw this recipe, I knew we had a winner. Not only did it have the recipe for the quinoa salad, but also the pork chops. With the added jalapeno pepper to give a little hint of heat, the mix of lime juice and roasted peppers really added a nice flavour to the salad, and I’d gladly eat this dish again. The quinoa cooked up very similarly to cous cous, so it would be easy to interchange these two grains in other recipes.

INGREDIENTS FOR QUINOA

1 Cup quinoa

1 Cup fresh or frozen corn kernels

1 large red pepper, roasted, seeded, and quartered

3 Tablespoon olive oil

2-3 Tablespoon freshly squeezed lime juice

3/4 Teaspoon salt, plus more for the tomatoes

1/2 Cup (tightly packed) chopped cilantro

1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and diced

1 Cup generous cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered

Chili-Scented Pork Chops

INGREDIENTS FOR PORK CHOPS

1 Tablespoon olive oil

2 Teaspoon chili powder

3/4 Teaspoon garlic powder

1/8 Teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 Teaspoon salt

4  pork loin chops, each about 1-inch thick

Vegetable oil, for frying

DIRECTIONS

BRING a large pot of water to a boil. Add quinoa and cook for 10 minutes. Add corn and continue cooking until quinoa is translucent and there is no tiny dot of uncooked starch in the centre, 1 to 3 more minutes. Pour quinoa and corn through a fine-meshed strainer. Run cold water over mixture to stop cooking process. Drain well and transfer mixture to a large bowl.

BLEND together in a mini chopper or food processor the red pepper, 2 tablespoons of olive oil, 2 tablespoons lime juice, and salt. Toss dressing, cilantro, and jalapeño into quinoa. Add more lime juice and salt to taste.

TOSS in a small bowl cherry tomatoes with remaining tablespoon of olive oil and sprinkle lightly with salt. Set aside.

MAKE in another small bowl a paste by stirring together olive oil, chili powder, garlic powder, cinnamon, and salt. Spread a thin layer of the paste on both sides of chops.

BRUSH a large skillet or grill pan lightly with vegetable oil and heat until sizzling hot. Cook chops over high heat until browned on bottom, about 1-1/2 minutes. Turn them over and brown second side. Reduce heat to low, cover pan, and cook chops for 4 minutes (if boneless) or 5 minutes (if bone-in). Turn chops over. Cover pan and cook until chops are cooked to taste, usually 4 to 5 additional minutes. Test for doneness by slicing into thickest part of chop.

ADD more lime juice to quinoa salad, if needed. Make a bed of quinoa salad on each plate. Set a chop on top. Spoon cherry tomatoes on the side.