Pan Roasted Pork Chops With Pea Shoot Pesto
- Total Time
- 1 hour
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
- ¾cup pine nuts
- 3cups pea shoots
- ½cup fresh cilantro leaves
- ¼cup grated Parmesan
- 2cloves garlic, chopped
- ¾teaspoon kosher salt
- ⅓cup extra virgin olive oil
- 41¼-inch-thick) bone-in pork chops (about ¾ pound each)
- 1clove garlic, halved
- 1½teaspoons kosher salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 3tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 2cups pea shoots
- 1small bunch arugula, cleaned
- 3tablespoons fresh cilantro leaves
- 1small shallot, thinly sliced
- Extra virgin olive oil, for drizzling
- Lemon juice, for drizzling
- Coarse sea salt, such as fleur de sel, to taste
- Freshly ground black pepper
For the Pea Shoot Pesto
For the Pork Chops
For the Pea Shoot and Arugula Salad
Preparation
For the Pea Shoot Pesto
- Step 1
In a small skillet over medium-low heat, toast pine nuts, tossing occasionally, until golden, about 3 minutes.
- Step 2
To prepare pesto, in a food processor or blender combine pea shoots, ½ cup toasted pine nuts, cilantro, Parmesan, garlic and salt. Pulse until roughly chopped. With motor running, slowly drizzle in olive oil; blend until well combined. Scrape pesto into a bowl.
- Step 3
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Cut each pork chop horizontally in half to bone, making a pocket for stuffing. Rub pork chops all over with cut side of garlic clove, grinding garlic juices into bone and meat. Season chops all over with salt and pepper, and fill each pocket with 1 tablespoon pesto.
- Step 4
In a very large ovenproof skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat until shimmering. Sear pork chops until well browned, about 3 minutes a side. Transfer skillet to oven. Cook pork chops until they register 140 degrees on an instant-read thermometer, 12 to 15 minutes (or cook pork to taste). Let stand in skillet for 5 minutes.
- Step 5
Meanwhile, prepare salad: In a large bowl, toss together pea shoots, arugula, remaining ¼ cup pine nuts, cilantro and shallot. Toss with enough olive oil to lightly coat greens; drizzle with lemon juice and season with salt and pepper.
- Step 6
Divide salad among 4 serving plates. Place a pork chop on each bed of greens. Top chops with additional pesto. Spoon pan juices over each plate.
Private Notes
Cooking Notes
This recipe sounds great. However, I have never seen pea shoots for sale, even at my local produce market. Does anyone have any suggestions for a pea shoot substitute?
I get pea shoots from my CSA each year and they have great flavor but are very stringy. Grinding them into pesto was genius. I made the recipe exactly as directed and found it to be a delicious springtime dish.
Amazing. We had leftover pea shoots and they are slightly nutty so it was so nice with the toasted pine nuts. We added more garlic (personal preference) and a big squeeze of lemon to balance everything. We had some radishes and cherry tomatoes so just tossed that into the salad alongside some Parmesan shavings. Nice spring recipe and I’m sure you can make the pesto the night before,
Verrrrry garlic-y. Maybe limit the amount in the pesto?
Pesto - couple handfuls of baby spinach, pine nuts ,sliver of Parma and some evo - otherwise followed recipe exactly - fantastic
Couple handfuls of baby spinach, pine nuts,parm and olive oil others wise followed recipe fantastic
This recipe was not my favorite. I made the pesto (admittedly forgetting to toast the pine nuts) and then me and my husband both disliked it so much i didn’t even use it. The pea shoots are just a very strong flavor and not very “pesto-y”. I did think they were okay in the salad when offset by the more bitter arugula.
Watercress is a good substitute for pea shoots
If you’re near an HMart, you can probably get them there. In Virginia, they have them at ours pretty much year round.
I get pea shoots from my CSA each year and they have great flavor but are very stringy. Grinding them into pesto was genius. I made the recipe exactly as directed and found it to be a delicious springtime dish.
The pesto is fabulous. I made one batch as directed and a non-dairy batch using nutritional yeast instead of Parmesan. Both were tasty.
Found pea shoots at local farmer's market.
Slice it horizontally to form a pocket? Has anyone done this? I'm having a hard time picturing that. Horizontal as in butterflying it?
i haven't made this specific recipe (plan to next week) but i have cut these pockets before for another recipe, so hopefully this makes sense. you want to be slicing parallel to the surface of the chop, and have the point of your knife toward the bone. (so you are inserting the knife through the fatty edge.) it's sort of similar to butterflying except you don't want to cut it all the way open or the filling will just run out-you're just making a pocket. hope that helps :)
Cut it like a bagel.
This recipe sounds great. However, I have never seen pea shoots for sale, even at my local produce market. Does anyone have any suggestions for a pea shoot substitute?
You are more likely to find these pea shoots at a good Asian market. And they tend to be seasonal.
The Cantonese call it Dow Mew (like the Dow in Dow Jones Averages and the sound a cat makes)
It comes in two forms: The smaller, young, more tender version or the more mature version shown in this recipe. I like both. It is one of my favorite Asian veggies. In season, you will find it stir-fried in any of the good Cantonese Restaurants.
I think spinach cream might work because it looks like the pea shoot pesto. (I'm just a lurker so I have no experience in cooking; I just wanted to help out a fellow Jim)
You can pea shoot from asian markets. There may be two varieties, one that's more leafy and one containing more stems. Look for the former as they're more sweeter. Pea shoots can also be sauteed with a few cloves of garlic as a side vegetable dish.
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