Pork & Peanut Noodles

Since I was diagnosed with Crohns disease, I started making a lot more dishes from Asian cultures – a lot less dairy to be found. One of the things that I’ve come to appreciate is that many Chinese recipes are very quick, fairly healthy – and don’t require a lot of energy to make. I call them cut and dump recipes.

This recipe is all my own, and came from a couple of different recipes I’ve learned to make – a peanut noodle recipe and Shanghai noodles. So, enjoy!

Pork and Peanut Noodles

Makes 3 generous servings

Ingredients

1 lb ground pork (Mine was an 80/20 blend – if your is more lean, you’ll need a cooking oil)
Two bulbs of baby bok choy, cut into thin ribbons
3 cloves of garlic, minced (I like a lot of garlic)
1 1/2 inch piece of ginger, minced
8 oz shanghai noodles, prepared as directed (I use udon most of the time, spaghetti also works)
1/2 cup reserved hot water from the noodles
1/3 cup smooth peanut butter (I used Skippy, it’s what we had)
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 Tbsp toasted sesame oil
2 Tbsp light brown ginger
2 Tbsp rice vinegar
1/4 chopped roasted unsalted peanuts
salt and pepper

Boil water on high heat in a stock pot for the noodles. Cook per the directions and reserve a 1/2 cup of hot water from the pot.

Heat a nonstick wok or large skillet on medium-high heat.
When hot, add pork to the skillet. (Note: if your ground pork had less fat, add a little neutral cooking oil to the skillet or wok first) Season with salt and pepper (I used about 1 tsp of kosher salt and a half a teaspoon of salt)
Break up the pork into small pieces and brown it fully. Drain off all but 1 tbsp of the pork fat.

While that happens, in a separate bowl, mix 1/4 cup hot water with the peanut butter, soy sauce, sesame oil and rice vinegar. (If you wanted to add a little heat, this is a great place to add a pinch of red pepper flakes) It doesn’t need to be mixed into a smooth sauce.
Add the garlic and ginger to the pork, mix fully.
Add the sauce to the pork, toss until it forms a smooth sauce. (Try a piece of pork and adjust as you need to, add a little more brown sugar if you like it sweeter, a little salt if it isn’t salty enough!)

Add the noodles to the pan, and toss into the sauce. If the sauce is too thick, pour in a little more of the hot water until you get the consistency you want.

Garnish with chopped peanuts, and that’s it!