How did you eat pork chops growing up? If you’re of a certain age, I'll bet it was with a side of applesauce or maybe homemade mashed potatoes.
Both pair perfectly with pork, so I’m not throwing shade on mom or grandma. But since it’s spring, when fresh greens such as arugula and baby spinach are widely available, why not substitute a simple salad dressed in a zesty, lemony vinaigrette?
Sheela Prakash’s latest cookbook, “Salad Seasons: Vegetable-Forward Dishes All Year,” has one such recipe. Only instead of making it with lemon juice, vinegar, and mustard, Kitchn’s senior contributing editor uses the entire lemon—rind, pulp, juice, and all.
“Might sound nothing short of crazy,” she writes in the headnotes, “but it’s no-waste brilliance at its best.”
When mixed with honey, toasted almonds, and a generous glug of olive oil, lemon’s vibrant peel, bitter pith and lip-puckering flesh “make for a complex vinaigrette that’s unlike anything you’ve had before.”
She’s right. The bright and cheerful dressing is both tangy and floral, with only an edge of bitterness.
Prakash used the lemon vinaigrette to dress an arugula salad in her book, but I substituted an arugula-baby spinach mix. I served it with bone-in, panko-fried pork chops.
Organic lemons are a good idea if you can find them, since you’re using the entire lemon (except the seeds) in the recipe.
In addition to dressing any and all greens, this vinaigrette is wonderful for drizzling on grilled or roasted meats or fish, spooning over roasted vegetables, and as a dipping sauce for shrimp. It keeps in the fridge for about a week.
Crispy Pork Chops With Arugula Salad
Ingredients
For Salad
