Apple Cider Pork with Kale Salad

Here’s my autumn twist on stir-fry!

This is one of my easy weeknight go-to’s during the fall. Honestly, the hardest part of this meal is planning ahead an hour to marinate the pork! The marinade is practically two ingredients, plus, once you begin actually cooking, the whole thing comes together super fast. I made this on a Tuesday night after getting up at 4:30am, and working a full day. If this weren’t really an easy fix, there’s no way I would have attempted a “photo shoot dinner” on a workday.

I like to serve this with something green. Brian’s got lots of “Brianisms” or goofy one liners that he says a lot. One of them is “I need some green in my life.” Well here’s some green for everyone’s life. It’s my favorite way to eat raw kale at the moment. This is the basic version, but please add anything and everything you can think of. I’ve added pears, apples, pecans, pine nuts, and almonds before. Please comment if you think of any other great additions… I’m always trying to think of new things to dig for in salads!

Tasty. Healthy. Fast. Seasonal… Enjoy!

Apple Cider Pork with Kale Salad Recipe

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Ingredients

• 1 1/4lb pork tenderloin (in small cubes)
• 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1 1/2 cup apple juice or apple cider
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
• 6 cups chopped kale
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries
• lemon juice
• olive oil
• kosher salt

Directions

Step 1

In a 2 cup measuring cup, measure out your apple cider vinegar and apple cider/juice.

Step 2

Add in the salt and pepper, and give it all a good stir.

Step 3

Pour into a 13x9 inch dish with your pork tenderloin cubes. Spread the cubes out into an even layer so that everyone gets plenty of marinade.

Step 4

Cover with plastic wrap while pressing all the pieces down into the apple cider mixture.

Step 5

Pop into the fridge for an hour. Once it's had at least an hour in the marinade, drain off the pork cubes.

Step 6

Spread them out onto several layers of paper towels. Being drier when they go into the skillet will help them brown a bit better.

Step 7

Another thing that will help the pieces to brown is to cook the pork in two batches. Heat about a tablespoon of olive oil in a skillet over medium high heat, and add roughly half of your pork.

Step 8

This is just like a stir-fry. That means you'll be constantly moving the pieces around over a fairly high heat. Toss the cubes around around 2 minutes and then pull to a plate.

Step 9

Add one more tablespoon of oil to your skillet, and brown the second batch for another two minutes. Pour the first plateful of pork back into the skillet. Cover the whole thing with a lid, and simmer one minute.

Step 10

Remove the lid and let it bubble another 30 seconds to 2 minutes (depending on the size of your pork cubes). Be careful at this point, because dry pork is no fun for anyone involved. If you have really small pieces, then they're probably done about the time the lid comes off.

Step 11

I always pull one of the largest pieces and cut into it to make sure it's done. I figure once the bigger pieces are ready, then they're all good to go! As soon as you think they're done, pull them out of the hot pan!

Step 12

As I said earlier, I always like to serve this with something green. Here I paired it with a super simple kale salad. I de-stemmed, washed, and chopped about 6 cups of kale. Then I tossed it with equal parts lemon juice and olive oil (it was around 1/8 cup of each). Add in a sprinkle of kosher salt and a handful of sweetened and dried cranberries (about 1/2 cup), and you've got yourself an easy and tasty seasonal salad!

Step 13

Nestle a tasty pile of pork into the cranberry kale salad,

Step 14

and enjoy a deliciously healthy autumn dinner!