Nov 07, 2024

Donal's blackened citrus pork bowl with salsa verde

A punchy and nourishing bowl that's made even easier to cook with the air fryer.

Ingredients

Serves: 4

Time: 40 minutes

  • 1 pork loin fillet, cut in half
  • 4 tbsps fajita seasoning
  • 1 tbsp light brown sugar
  • 2 peppers
  • 1 red onion
  • Zest and juice of 2 limes
  • 1 tin puy lentils
  • 1 x 400g tin borlotti beans
  • 1 orange

For the salsa verde

  • Handful of flat leaf parsley
  • Handful of coriander, plus a little extra for garnish
  • Handful of mint
  • 2 tbsps pickled jalapenos
  • 50g pistachios, shelled
  • 50ml extra virgin olive oil
  • Zest of ½ an orange
  • Zest of a lime
  • Sea salt & freshly ground black pepper

Method

  1. Mix together fajita seasoning, brown sugar and a pinch of salt. Place the pork fillet on a plate and roll in the seasoning until it's completely covered.
  2. Place into the air fryer and cook at 200C for 5 minutes then turn down to 160C and cook for a further 12 - 15 minutes.
  3. During the first 5 minutes of the cook, slice the peppers and place into a bowl. Add a drizzle of oil, a pinch of salt and 1 tsp of the fajita spice mix and toss everything together to coat. When you turn the temperature down, place the peppers into the air fryer basket.
  4. Whilst the pork cooks, thinly slice the red onion and mix with the lime juice and a good pinch of salt- really massage the liquid into the red onion. Leave to quickly pickle
  5. Get on to the accompaniments. Chop all the ingredients for the salsa verde together on a board then place into a bowl and add the olive oil, drizzling in a steady stream as you stir to combine everything. Zest in the orange and season with the lime juice, adding it to taste.
  6. The pork should be done by now so remove the pork and peppers, placing them into a bowl to rest whilst you bring everything together.
  7. Make the salad, add the pouch of puy lentils to a large bowl. Drain the tin of beans and add to the same bowl. Add ½ of the salsa verde, the juice of ½ an orange, some of the pickled onions and a good pinch of salt and pepper and mix everything together well.
  8. Finally, slice the pork into 1cm pieces and scoop the bean salad onto a platter then top with the peppers. Add the sliced pork then drape over the quick pickled onions and drizzle over the rest of the salsa verde. Garnish with coriander leaves.