Pork Chops and Butter Bean Salad

When it comes to red meats and the other white meat, I’m a novice in the kitchen. Unless it’s ground beef being morphed into a patty, loaf, or ball, I stick with leaner proteins or skip them all together for vegetarian options.

The other week I made the mistake of going to the grocery store with my husband. This is a mistake on two levels:

1. He picks out items that aren’t on the list… like, um, PORK CHOPS.

2. He gawks at the bill every time. Every time. As if he’s never seen a grocery bill before… fascinating.

Anyway, after he threw the pork chops into the cart I asked in a panicked voice, “What are we going to do with these???” To which he responded “I dunno. We’ll figure something out.”

That’s code for “Erin gets to scour the Internets to find a recipe that she can cut her teeth on for preparing pork chops.”

As usual, I turned to Real Simple for help. I found a handful of easy-to-prepare recipes, and picked one from the bunch.

Pork Chops and Butter Bean Salad, c/o Real Simple

Ingredients

1 1/2 lbs Pork Chops (about 4)

2 C Bread, shredded into small pieces

4 TBSP olive oil

2 scallions, sliced

Salt and Pepper

1 bunch of Spinach, thoroughly rinsed, stems removed, leaves sliced

1 14 oz can of butter beans

1 TBSP red wine vinegar (I didn’t have the red on hand so I used white wine vinegar)

1/2 tsp dried oregano

Preparation

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a food processor, pulse bread and 2 TBSP of olive oil.

Spread crumbs onto a baking sheet (line it with parchment paper) and bake until crisp, 5-6 minutes. Toss with scallions, salt and pepper.

In a large skillet, heat 1 TBSP oil over medium-high heat. Season pork on both sides with salt and pepper. Brown in skillet, 2-3 minutes per side.

Transfer your pork chops to a baking dish, unless your skillet is oven-proof.  Bake in oven until roasted through, 5-7 minutes.

Toss together spinach, beans, vinegar, oregano, last of olive oil and a dash of salt and pepper.

Remove pork chops from oven and top with bread crumbs before serving.