Healthy Pork Recipes for Dinner Tonight

It is of course the aim of this site to provide both healthy and tasty pork recipes for you to try making at home and hopefully thoroughly enjoy. It is imperative, however, that we remember one golden rule before trying any of what follows: pork must always be properly cooked!

It is a fact that when we are cooking certain types of meat such as beef steaks, or fish such as tuna, that they should be only partially cooked in order that we may get the best out of them. This analogy, however - as with chicken - should never be applied to pork. The meat should always be cooked right the way through, with no traces of pink remaining in either the meat itself or the juices escaping from it. If there are any such traces, further cooking time is required. Please note carefully that to disregard this advice is to put your health at risk!

Are you short of time? It won't take long to prepare this simple recipe!

Per person, you will require:

2 slices of bread (toasted)
4 medallions or rashers of bacon
2 pineapple rings (if canned, should be in own juice and not syrup!)
2 slices of tomato
1 tsp of freshly grated parmesan cheese
2 basil leaves

The first step is to put the bacon on to grill. Turn it after two or three minutes and put your bread in the toaster. When the toast is ready, use a three or four inch (7.5 or 10 cm) cutter or even a large drinking glass to cut the largest possible circle from each slice. Place these circles on a serving plate and add the bacon, pineapple, grated cheese, tomato and basil in that order and serve.

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This is not the title of a recipe that many people would expect to see on a healthy eating site! I am sure, however, that even a cursory glance at the photograph accompanying this text will begin to tell you that all is not quite as it first may appear. I am attempting here to prove my point that simply by changing our method of preparation, meals similar to what we enjoyed before may be still be created.

The first thing we have to do is consider the type of sausages we are going to purchase. Here, I have gone for high meat content pork and apple sausages. They should be cooked in a little oil over a very low heat for forty minutes to an hour. Do not prick them before cooking. If the heat is low enough they should not burst.

The potatoes should be peeled and chipped in the normal fashion then parboiled in salted water for 5 minutes. Drain them well and mix them around carefully (so as not to break them) in a bowl with a little olive oil. They should then be placed on to a baking tray and in to an oven preheated to 200 degrees centigrade or equivalent for half an hour.

The egg should be poached, or alternatively, scrambled. Bring a pan of water up to a boil and add a touch of vinegar. Break the egg in to a small bowl. Stir the water with a spoon to create a "whirlpool" effect and gently pour the egg in to the centre. I like mine cooked for about three to four minutes.

The beans are runner beans, chopped up and boiled in salted water for 5 minutes.

I hope you enjoy this meal and it goes some way to proving my point.

A properly cooked pork fillet forms the perfect basis for many a tasty meal but here I have featured a slight variation on the theme.

I cooked the pork fillet as one normally would under a medium hot grill for approximately ten minutes each side - this depends on the thickness of the fillet - until it is properly cooked. I then added some grated cheddar cheese, mixed with a pinch of dried sage, to the top of the cooked fillet and returned it to underneath the grill for about a minute or until the cheese starts to bubble.

I promise you, it was absolutely delicious!

There is often confusion arises regarding the difference between cottage pie and shepherd's pie and occasionally even a belief that they are two names for one and the same thing. The fact of the matter is that cottage pie is made with ground or minced beef and shepherd's pie with ground or minced lamb.

I consequently began wondering one day what we would call such a pie made with ground or minced pork and decided upon - strangely enough! - "Swineherd's Pie." Click here for the recipe which I came up with, pictured immediately above.

For this recipe, which serves two people, you will need:

4 pork fillets or chops
2 Granny Smith apples (cored and sliced in to rings)
2 large Maris Piper potatoes (sliced)
2 garlic cloves (crushed)
1/2 tsp dried sage
1 tbsp olive oil

Preheat oven to 180 degrees centigrade or equivalent. Mix crushed garlic and sage with olive oil in a large bowl then add the potato and apple slices, mixing gently to ensure they are well coated but do not break. In a large casserole dish, arrange the pork, potato and apple alternately in a circle. Cover and cook in oven for 1 1/4 hours, ensuring pork is cooked through. Season with salt and serve hot.

This is an extremely simple dish which can be served alone for lunch or in smaller quantities as a main meal accompaniment. It is comprised of only the most natural, freshest produce, is quick to prepare and cook, and crucially for me, like all top quality recipes, does not have a list of ingredients half the length of your arm!

The concept of marrying cabbage with bacon is hardly a new one, but the precise recipe I have devised gives, I believe, a truly unique, extra special flavour. The quantity described below will provide a satisfying lunch for two people.

You will need:

1/2 a small, white cabbage (chopped)
4 lean rashers of unsmoked bacon
1 large onion (sliced)
4 cloves of garlic (finely chopped)
Handful of fresh coriander, or cilantro in US (roughly chopped)
Freshly grated nutmeg
Olive oil

Grill your bacon until it is cooked but not crisped. Put it on a plate and set it aside for now. Cut the remaining core out of your half cabbage by making a v-shaped insertion with a sharp chopping knife. Chop the cabbage across ways to leave you with long, thin slices. Cut the onion in half, downwards through the central core, then lay each half flat and slice finely. Take a large pan and put in about a tablespoonful of olive oil. Heat it up then add first the garlic to sweat off for a minute, though not colour. Add the cabbage and the onion and keep on a medium heat, stirring frequently and thoroughly with a wooden spoon. Using a small hand-grater, you should go back and forward eight to ten times with your nutmeg kernel to give just the right hint of flavour, though this can be varied as desired. After about ten minutes, the cabbage and the onion should be starting to soften through. Roughly chop your bacon rashers and add to the pan along with your coriander (cilantro) to heat through for a few minutes. Plate up and serve.

Note the absence of salt/pepper in this recipe. It is my belief that enough salt comes from the bacon to sufficiently season the dish along with the nutmeg. That, naturally, is also something that can be varied according to taste.

Pork is of course often served with apple sauce but this recipe incorporates the two in quite a different fashion.

Per person, you will require:

1 pork loin fillet
3 thin slices of potato
3 thin slices of cored apple
1 tbsp of grated hard cheese
Pinch of sage
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Sunflower oil

Preheat your oven to 200 degrees celsius or equivalent. Pour a little sunflower oil in to a non-stick frying pan and gently heat. Add the pork fillet and cook slowly for 15 minutes each side.

Put a little sunflower oil in a bowl and add a little sage and seasoning. Stir well and then add the potato slices and carefully mix them around in the mixture to ensure they are all evenly coated. Place them on to a baking sheet and in to the oven for 30 minutes, turning them after 15 and placing a slice of apple on top of each at this stage.

Turn off the heat under the pork and push the pan aside for the meat to rest. Keeping your potato and apple discs on the baking sheet, sprinkle each with some grated cheese and a touch more sage then heat under a hot grill until the cheese begins to bubble.

Bacon and egg for breakfast is of course a very popular choice but it is not necessarily always prepared in a healthy fashion. This is a slightly different take on the combination, cooked in a simple yet healthy manner.

Per person, you will require:

2 rashers of lean, unsmoked bacon
3 small, closed cup mushrooms (quartered downwards through the stalk)
1 large clove of garlic (crushed)
1 free range, organic egg
1 slice of bread
Pinch of dried sage
1 tbsp of olive oil
Freshly ground black pepper
2 or 3 fresh basil leaves for garnish

Grill the bacon slices until they are cooked but not crispy. Shake them well to remove all the excess fat and set aside. Bring a large pan of water with a touch of white wine vinegar in it to the boil then stir it rapidly to create a whirlpool effect and carefully drop the egg in to the centre. Reduce to a simmer and cook for 4 to 6 minutes, depending upon how soft you prefer your egg yolk to be.

In to a small, non-stick saucepan, put the olive oil and the garlic and gently sweat it off for a minute or so, stirring frequently. Put the bread on to toast and add the mushrooms and the sage to the pan, seasoning with pepper only as enough salt should be provided by the bacon. Continue to stir well for a couple of minutes. Slice the bacon and add it to the pan for about thirty seconds or so, just to heat through.

Plate the toast and cover with the bacon and mushroom mixture, placing the egg carefully on top. Garnish with the torn basil leaves and serve.