30 Minute Saucy Pork Noodles
Ground pork is one of those meats that requires a lot of assistance in the flavour department. Alone, it can often be too… well…. too porky. It needs the help from spices, herbs and often other ground meats to cut the…porkiness…. clearly, I’m not the greatest at describing pork.
The other night, my husband took out some ground pork for dinner and I immediately thought of using it in something Asian inspired. Again, I say “inspired”, because this is not authentic in any way, shape or form so don’t @ me (I say that as if I even know what “don’t @ me” means). Anyways, I took to the internet to look for some inspiration and found two similar but different recipes from Bon Appetit’s Chris Morocco (if you are a BA fan, you know) and the other from Half Baked Harvest. I broke down both recipes, looked in my refrigerator and pantry and came up with my own version that is A. Family Friendly and B. Used ingredients that I keep on hand for my asian-inspired cooking.
When making recipes like this, that come together really quickly, I like to have my ingredients cut, prepped and ready to go. The prep-work is probably the most time consuming part of all of this and that probably took me a total of 15 minutes. From start to finish, I had dinner on the table in less than 30 minutes. So, before you begin, prep and measure everything out so that you’re ready to start cooking because this meal comes together fast, fast, fast!
Okay, now let’s talk about substitutions! If you don’t have ground pork but have ground turkey or chicken, those would be great alternatives. If you’re wanting to make this a meatless meal, leave it out and go heavy on the veg. Speaking of veg, cabbage is one of those vegetables that’s great in things like slaws, soups and stir fries. I especially love it because a little of it goes a long way and it stores well in the refrigerator for at least a couple of weeks, if not more. I like the crunch it gives to this dish, but a great alternative to cabbage would be carrots. Some other great additions to the dish would be bok choy, red bell peppers and perhaps you could get a little crazy and even add some sugar snap peas for colour and crunch! Feel free to load up on all the veg in this dish because it will taste delish! Keep in mind though that the more veg you add, the less saucy it will be. As for the noodles, I would have preferred a thicker egg noodle with this dish but I made do with what I had. If all else fails and you don’t have any Asian noodles in the house, you could just lean into that box of linguine in your pantry and call it a day. For the record, pasta and noodles aren’t the same thing in my humble opinion, but I won’t tell if you have to resort to that.
Happy cooking everyone! Don’t forget to tag me on Instagram at @lifefromtheplapen to show me your version of this dish. I hope your family enjoys it as much as mine did!
Saucy Pork Noodles
Life From the Playpen | April 2020
Prep Time: 15 mins | Cook Time: 15 mins |
Total Time: 30 mins
Servings: 4
INGREDIENTS
- 8 oz Asian noodles
- 1 tbsp sesame oil
- 1 tbsp canola oil (or any other neutral flavoured oil)
- 1/2 lb ground pork/chicken
- 2 cups cabbage, sliced thinly
- 2 cups spinach
- 1/2 red onion, sliced thinly
- 6 cloves garlic, minced
- 2" piece of ginger, minced
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 1/4 cup rice vinegar (or white wine vinegar)
- 1/3 cup water
- 2 tbsp honey
- 1-2 tbsp chili paste (sambal oelek) optional
- 2 tbsp cilantro, chopped
- 2 tbsp sesame seeds
INSTRUCTIONS
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Once it reaches a boil, season it generously with salt and add noodles. Cook according to package instructions, drain and set aside.
- In a large skillet over medium-high heat, add oil and pork. Break up pork into large pieces and brown. When meat is almost fully cooked, add cabbage and red onion. Sautee until tender and add in spinach, garlic and ginger. Add water, honey, soy sauce, rice vinegar and chili paste to the pan and stir everything to combine. *NOTE: Be sure to set some of the mixture aside for the kids before adding in the chili paste.
- Combine noodles with sauce. Top it off with fresh cilantro and sesame seeds, serve and enjoy!
