March Lunches

Well. It finally happened, we've finally moved on from Vietnamese rice noodle salad. For how long I'm not so sure - when we find something that works we tend to keep it around for a long time. Last winter we had baked zucchini with almost every meal for months and now I can't stand the thought of eating it. I don't want that to happen to this lunch favourite so it's out of rotation for a while.

Boyfriend requested a quinoa salad for lunch this week, but we forgot to buy quinoa. And that my friends is the supremely interesting story behind this week's lunch recipe for summer lentil and zucchini 'pasta' with roasted capsicum and garlic sauce.

Summer lentil & zucchini 'pasta' with roasted capsicum and garlic sauce
Makes enough for 8 lunches

Ingredients
For the sauce

1 punnet cherry/baby roma tomatoes
1 bulb wild garlic, roasted
Whole red capsicum, roasted, peeled and de-seeded
Olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
teaspoon italian parsley
Juice of one lemon

For the lentils
Handful shredded Italian parsley
tablespoon lemon juice
rosemary
2 bayleafs
2 garlic cloves

2 spring onions sliced thinly
salt & pepper to taste

Plus...
1 large zucchini
1/2 cup toasted pine nuts

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Roast whole capsicum and bulb of garlic in a heavy roasting pan until capsicum skin blackens on all sides. Remove from oven and set aside to cool.

2. Prepare lentils according to The Kitchn's directions here. Combine with lemon, spring onion and parsley as well as salt and pepper to taste.

3, Using either an ordinary peeler, julienne peeler or the small attachment on your spiralizer prepare zucchini.

4. For the sauce: combine all ingredients in a food processor or blender. Blend until combined. Season to taste. 

5. Divide seasoned lentils and zucchini amongst lunch containers, garnish with1 teaspoon pine nuts. Divide sauce between dressing containers.

6. Can be served warm or cold. 

Perfectly Pulled Pork

Excuse the alliteration but honestly, this really is the best pulled pork recipe I've come across. I can only take credit for persevering in my quest for perfect pulled pork and not for the recipe, that honour goes to Kevin and Amanda.

There are a number of good and much simpler pulled pork recipes out there that take far less time to prepare. It seemed to me though, that the less time preparing the rub/marinade the more artificial flavors or store-bought sauces were used. That to me is not cooking. That is assembly. Which is fine and obviously delicious but just not for me, nor my sensitive belly.

I could re-post the recipe here but instead I'd say head over to Kevin and Amanda's website and thoroughly read through the recipe before commencing. The most important piece of advice I can provide for you is this: DON'T cut corners! Cook until it reaches the correct temperature and avoid upping the temperature on your oven.

Here are a couple of other tips that will help you:

- Get a meat thermometer and a cheap set of electric scales for portioning.
- Boston butt is the upper cut of the pork shoulder.
- Kosher salt is different to normal table salt - I tend to use a lake salt or sea salt flakes as it has a milder flavor which is similar to kosher salt.
- Buy the biggest pork shoulder you can (around 3 - 3.5kg) with a good layer of fat/skin to protect the pork while cooking and preferably boneless - you don't want all that weight going into purchasing the bone! It might seem excessive to make such a large amount, but preparation is the same regardless of the size and pulled pork is so versatile and not all that bad for you either!

- The pulled pork freezes well so you can portion it up for tacos, salads, sandwiches and burritos for months to come!  

- This pulled pork is so full of flavor it should be the star of the show and is great in a fresh roll with an undressed slaw, hot English mustard and Japanese mayo or in a soft shell taco, but as prescribed in the mission statement for this blog (from this post) here is my recipe for one of our fresh, healthy and quick weekly meals.

Pulled Pork Taco chopped salad
Makes two generous servings

Ingredients
Two portions (150g each) pulled pork
corn kernels off the cob
1/2 avocado - diced
Cherry tomatoes - quartered
2 generous handfuls shredded and diced cos lettuce
2 tbsp sliced black olives
2 spring onions - sliced
Shredded and chopped red/white cabbage

Optional extras: pine nuts, feta, red onion, radish

Combine all ingredients in a large salad bowl and mix thoroughly. Top with pulled pork portions. Serve immediately!