Disclosure: *I was gifted the Kambrook BlitzPro I used to create the marinate in this recipe. This recipe is not sponsored or paid.  The BlitzPro is a high intensity blender with two blades. You could also use a food processor with a motor of at least 800 watts.

How much do you love summer vegetables? I wait all year for the glorious fresh vegetables of a summer vegetable garden. I prefer vegetables eaten raw rather than cooked so summer is the perfect time to grate, spiralled and slice fresh vegetables straight from the garden for the family meal table.  I love the crisp crunch and sweetness of freshly picked vegetables, vibrant in colour and flavour.   During the summer months our vegetable garden provides most of the vegetables required for our family meals.

This recipe was inspired by the growing messy lemongrass plants in my kitchen garden. Lemongrass takes a few years to mature to be able to harvest decent sized stalks for use in cooking. In the mean time if they are not monitored they can harbour A LOT of snails that sneak out to feast on the surrounding plants. This summer is year 2 of our plants. They have had the resident snails removed prior to summer setting in and the stalks are starting to thicken nicely.  I collected theses stems from one plant last week to make this meal.

Recipes such as this one allow everyone at the table to select their ingredients and create their own version of the meal. Have you tried this strategy with your children? I have found that mine eat more vegetables when given the opportunity to select what they want to eat. I don’t do this all the time, it is a once-in a-while thing and we have a rule they need to select three items in addition to the meat, even if it is just a little bit of one of the three items.

This recipe is a good one to serve when entertaining if you are not 100% sure of the food preferences of your guests. It allows them, like the children, to select what they would like to eat!

I served this meal with rice noodles. You could also serve it with rice or with wraps.

The chilli sauce in the recipe is a perfect accompaniment to the meal. For the kids, just add a little squeeze of lemon juice, soy or tamari (gluten free) as an alternative.

The eggplant cubes show in the recipe picture were cooked in a pan with coconut oil, a drizzle of soy, a sprinkle of palm sugar and a squeeze of lime juice once cooked. You can again avoid the chilli if the kids are not a fan of the heat.

The marinate in this recipe was made in seconds in my Kambrook BlitzPro a new machine that processes fibrous ingredients such as lemongrass, ginger and those used in the recipe as the marinate with no effort.  It also comes with a blending blade for making smoothies dips and soups.  It is strong enough to deal with added ice for summer drinks.

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Lemongrass Pork Noodle Salad Recipe

Prep Time

15 mins

Cook Time

15 mins

Total Time

30 mins

 

A fresh and healthy marinated pork recipe with raw vegetables. Perfect for a hot summer evening, crisp and cool using freshly harvested summer garden vegetables.

Course: Main

Servings: 6

Author: Kyrstie Barcak - A Fresh Legacy

Ingredients

Marinate

• 3 stalks fresh lemongrass
• 1 garlic glove
• 2 leaves kaffir lime
• 1 cm fresh tumeric
• 2 cm fresh ginger
• 1/2 tablespoon coconut oil

Meat

• 400 grams pork fillet

Chilli Soy Eggplant

• 1 eggplant cut into cubes
• coconut oil for heated pan
• drizzle dark soy
• drizzle light soy
• drizzle fish sauce
• pepper freshly ground
• pinch chilli flakes
• drop or two sesame oil
• pinch palm sugar

Additions

• 1 carrot spiralised or grated
• 1 small zucchini spiralised or grated
• chilli and soy eggplant
• 1 small cucumber sliced thinly
• 1 serve pea sprouts
• mint fresh
• vietnamese mint fresh

Dipping Sauce

• 1 fresh chilli chopped
• 1/2 lime juice
• 2 teaspoons light soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon dark soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon palm sugar
• 1 teaspoon fish sauce

To Serve

• Rice noodles wraps or rice

Instructions

1. *Prepare ahead of time if possible (not required)
2. Add the ingredients to the marinate to the BlitzPro and process with the Grinding blade until they become a paste
3. Rub the marinate onto the pork and set aside to marinate
4. Set a pan to heat and add the oil add the eggplant to start to cook, stir and turn as it cooks
5. When the eggplant starts to soften add the soy, fish sauce, pepper, chilli and palm sugar
6. Remove from the heat and set aside once the eggplant is cooked
7. Cook the pork in a hot pan with some coconut oil added to stop the meat sticking to the pan, turn as required until cooked through, set aside to rest for 5 minutes then slice into thin rounds
8. Make the dipping sauce by combining the ingredients and set aside to serve
9. To a serving bowl add the raw vegetables and then the sliced meat and herbs and serve with the dipping sauce.
10. Add rice noodles, wraps or rice to serve and top with the ingredients of choice and drizzle with the sauce

Recipe Notes

The time marinate is not included in the preparation time of this recipe as it is optional.

Are you a fan of fresh raw vegetables or are you in Mr Fresh’s camp and prefer them to be cooked until soft?