Need a quick and easy meal for dinner? If you’re not a fan of brussels (or have picky eaters), this Pork and Brussels Sprouts Stir Fry will make you a convert! With it’s nutty sauce and spicy undertone, you might even be wanting seconds.
It’s so versatile, I’d even serve it as a side dish for Thanksgiving, which is coming up in Canada next week and in the US next month! It would be perfect to accompany ham or turkey.
When You Don’t Feel Like Cooking
This is a recipe adapted from the new (and best seller) book “What to Cook When you Don’t Feel Like Cooking“. Isn’t that the best title? Caro Chambers breaks the book down into the amount of time things take to cook and this one is fairly quick. Although, if you don’t have a food processor for this recipe, you’ll be cooking in dark if you start when it’s still light – if you know what I mean!
We always use recipes as a guide so of course we changed a number things to make it our own and to kick it up a notch (adding ginger and peanut sauce and switching up the nut butter to cashew and non-toasted sesame oil to toasted). Also, since we’re a gluten free household, we’ve swapped in Tamari for traditional soy sauce (which, even if we weren’t gluten free, we’d still prefer). Lastly, we increased the ingredients (i.e. 1.5 pounds or pork vs 1 pour) so it easily feeds 6 (or we have plenty of leftovers for just the two of us).
The book is all for substitutions. So there’s lots of suggestions for things you can easily swap to make this recipe your own! And of course, if you’re one of those people who can’t eat cilantro, because it tastes like soap, leave it out altogether or use parsley instead.
Ingredients
For this recipe you’ll need:
- Brussels Sprouts
- Ground pork
- San-J Thai peanut sauce
- San-J Tamari Premium Soy Sauce
- Lee Kum Kee Sriacha Chili Sauce
- Eden Organic Toasted Sesame Oil
- Unsweetened cashew butter
- Marukan rice vinegar
- Pereg sesame seeds
- Cilantro
- Rice (cooked the night before and cooled if you want to reduce carbs)
- Food processor with a slicing blade
- Olive Wood Spatula
- Non-stick skillet
Pork and Brussels Sprouts Stir Fry
Prepping the Brussels
As I hinted above, if you knife slice the brussels sprouts, you’ll never get dinner on the table.
The way to go is with a food processor. You’ll still have to cut off the base and cut them in half to prep though.
If you have an machine that has a blade that can shred, it takes mere seconds. I’m still using a Braun MultiPractic Food Processor I bought in the 90’s, so I have no clue about what’s on the market now. Things were built to last in those days (unlike today).
And before you know it, you’re done prepping the brussels.
Cook the Pork
A wooden spoon with a flat edge is ideal for breaking up the pork as it cooks. Hubs swears by his Olive Wood Spatula. He bought his at the California Culinary Academy while he was in San Francisco and his is made in Spain, but we’ve linked to a similar one on Amazon. It has literally lasted a lifetime and is a great addition to any kitchen if you don’t already have one or you’re looking for a gift.
Be sure to cook the pork until you don’t see any pink; this still has a few minutes to go.
Move the pork in the middle and cook the garlic and ginger for 30 seconds, until you can smell it, before stirring it in.
The brussels will fill up the pan, but move them occasionally so they cook and wilt down.
Clear another spot for the liquid ingredients so you can work the nut butter into the sauce until it’s somewhat smooth.
Then stir it in until everthing is coated.
Garnish with toasted sesame seeds and serve with rice. I’ve mentioned this before, but if you cook the rice the night before and cool it, you’ll substantially cut the carbs.
If you love stir fry, you’ll also love this broccoli beef stir fry! In this post, you’ll find our best tip for cutting thin slices of beef!
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Pork and Brussels Sprouts Stir Fry
Ingredients
- 1.5 TBSP toasted sesame oil Eden Selected
- 1.5 pounds ground pork
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 1.5 pounds brussels sprouts
- 5 garlic cloves minced
- 1 cup fresh cilantro leaves and stems
- 1/3 cup Tamari San-J
- 3 TBSP rice vinegar Marukan
- 2 TBSP Cashew Butter
- 1 TBSP Sriracha Chili Sauce Lee Kum Kee
- 1 TBSP peanut sauce we used San-J
- 2 frozen Toppits ginger cubes defrosted
- Toasted sesame seeds for garnish Pareg
Instructions
- Heat sesame oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the ground pork and salt. Cook, using a spoon to break up the pork, until pork is cooked through and no longer pink, 5 to 7 minutes.
- In the meantime, trim the brussels sprouts , then slice by hand or throw them into a food processor to shred.
- Add the sliced brussels sprouts to the skillet and cook, stirring occasionally until tender, 4-5 minutes. Add the garlic snd ginger into the middle of the skillet, stirring until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir into rest of pan. Reduce heat to low. Stir in finely chopped cilantro, then move everything to one side of the skillet.
- Add the soy sauce, vinegar, almond butter, Sriracha, and peanut sauce to the empty side of the skillet and stir to dissolve the almond butter. Once the sauce is somewhat smooth, stir it to combine with the rest of the pan and coat evenly.
- Garnish with toasted the sesame seeds and serve.
This looks good, Sara! Thanks for sharing the recipe!
Thanks Kim! It is; never ever thought I’d crave brussels sprouts lol!