Tangy Pork and Pineapple Stir Fry

I’ve been making so many stir fries recently. I just find them super easy to throw together and use up all sorts of vegetables that are sat in my fridge. The other night I had half a pineapple left over from my morning smoothie, and I decided to make this Tangy Pork and Pineapple Stir Fry for tea. It was SO good.

I posted another pork stir fry not that long ago, my Sticky Pork Stir Fry, but this one is completely different. The Sticky Pork Stir Fry is more like takeaway food, fried meat in a sweet and sour sticky sauce. This one is not the same. Stir-fried pork pieces with chunks of charred, slightly caramelised pineapple. Crunchy spring onions and a little kick of chilli. It’s extremely delicious, as well as being a healthier option too!

This is one of my dad’s recipes, adapted from an old pork and pineapple stir fry we found in a cookery book years ago. Over time he has added various ingredients to spice things up a bit, and this is the final product. Its made with a tasty sauce that is slightly nutty, with a hint of sweetness. We use peanut butter in ours, but if you can’t have peanuts, any nut butter would work. Tahini would go nicely with the sesame oil flavour I think.

It’s quite simple to put together, but with all stir fries, is much easier if you have all your ingredients prepped before you actually start cooking. For this recipe, that’s just chopping your veg and meat, and blending the sauce. After that, you pretty much throw it all in a wok, and it’s ready very quickly! We have it with brown rice, which has a slightly nuttier taste to its white counterpart and more of a bite. However, I think this stir fry would be super tasty with noodles too, or white rice of course. To make it even healthier you could just pair it with some leafy greens, like Pak Choi or green cabbage.

As with all my recipes, the spice is adjustable. For my family, this level of chilli was optimum – enough of a kick to be prominent, but not have us reaching for water after every bite. However, I know people who would have this three times as hot as we prefer, and others who would rather have no chilli at all! If you really don’t like heat, you could replace the chilli pepper with a regular pepper to add a little of the similar flavour, minus the heat.

For a healthy and quick but flavoursome dinner, this Tangy Pork and Pineapple Stir Fry is perfect. Give a try and let me know what you think in the comments!

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Pork and Pineapple Stir Fry

Course Main Course

Cuisine asian

Prep Time 25 minutes minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes minutes

Servings 4

Ingredients

• 350 g pork tenderloin
• ½ pineapple
• 300 g brown rice (about 1⅓ cups)
• the juice of ½ a lime
• 1 red chilli (less if you prefer less heat)
• 3 garlic cloves
• 4 spring onions
• handful fresh coriander, mint and basil

For the sauce

• 3 tbsp peanut butter
• 1½ tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp honey
• ½ tsp chilli flakes (less if you prefer less heat)
• 2 garlic cloves
• the juice of ½ a lime
• 1 small thumb of ginger
• 1 tsp fish sauce (optional)

Instructions

• Before cooking anything, prepare all the ingredients. Boil the rice according to packet instructions. Mine took 23 minutes.
• Meanwhile, chop the pineapple into bite-size chunks. Slice the pork into 1cm slices. Finely chop the spring onion, garlic and chilli. Roughly chop the fresh herbs. Set everything aside in separate bowls.
• Add the sauce ingredients to a blender and blitz until smooth. Add a few tbsp of water to loosen if it's a little thick.
• Heat 1 tbsp vegetable oil in a wok or pan on high heat. Fry the spring onions and garlic for a few minutes until they start to brown around the edges. Tip them out into a bowl.
• Add the pork slices as well as the juice of ½ a lime to the pan and cook until brown, about 3-4 minutes. Remove the pork into the bowl with the spring onions.
• Heat 1 tbsp sesame oil in the wok and add the pineapple chunks. Fry until they turn a little caramelised, about 5 minutes.
• Add the cooked pork, spring onions, garlic, chilli to the pan and stir in. Pour over the peanut sauce and stir to coat all the ingredients.
• Add the cooked rice and stir through, and finally the fresh herbs. Stir to combine everything, then serve with extra spring onions and soy sauce. Garnish with the fresh herbs.

Method in Pictures

Step 1

Gather your ingredients

Step 2

Chop the pineapple into bite-size chunks and set aside

Step 3

Slice the pork into 1cm pieces and set aside

Step 4

Finely slice the spring onion and set aside

Step 5

And the same with the garlic and chilli

Step 6

Cook the rice according to packet instructions

Step 7

Then drain and set aside

Step 8

Now to make the sauce...

Step 9

Add the ingredients to a blender

Step 10

And blitz until smooth, adding a little water if it needs loosening

Step 11

Fry the onions in a little oil on high heat for a few minutes

Step 12

Set the onions aside and add the pork, frying until brown, around 3 minutes

Step 13

And set aside with the spring onions

Step 14

In some sesame oil, fry the pineapple until caramelised, around 5 minutes

Step 15

Add the pork, along with the spring onions, garlic and chilli

Step 16

Add the peanut sauce and stir to coat the ingredients

Step 17

Add the rice and stir in

Step 18

Add the fresh herbs and stir in

Step 19

Serve with soy sauce

Step 20

And garnish with extra spring onion