PORK

Tenderloin Soup With Chickpeas And Kale

by Al Milukas

by Al Milukas

Al enjoys discovering great food, creative cocktails, and the people who make them. Listen to him on the Paul & Al show, weekdays on 94HJY. For more blogs delivered to your e-mail, sign up at www.livethelive.com.

Pork tenderloin is a lean cut of meat that can dry out easily when roasted. It’s usually just a couple of inches around, and over a foot long…a shape that can easily go from juicy to overdone in just a few minutes if you’re not watching it carefully.

This recipe really is based on what I had in the fridge and pantry at the time, and it just rocked!

I chose chickpeas as my starch. I don’t worry too much about carbs, as long as they’re good ones and in moderation.

I always use organic kale. Kale is one of the most heavily sprayed veggies out there. You don’t need pesticides in your soup!

The soup is gluten-free if you use gluten-free flour instead of regular all purpose flour.

Directions:

Ingredients:

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons

Brown Sugar

• 1 1/2 lb. pork tenderloin, cut into 1/4″ thick medallions, then cut in half

1 tablespoon

• 1 cup all-purpose flour

Ground Kona Coffee

• 1/2 onion, finely chopped

• 3 carrots, peeled and sliced

1 tablespoon

• 3 stalks celery, sliced

Kosher Salt

• 1 teaspoon garlic salt

• 1/2 teaspoon pepper

1 teaspoon

• 1 pint veal stock or chicken stock (homemade is best)

Granulated Garlic

• 1/2 cup white wine (I like an unoaked Australian chardonnay)

1 teaspoon

• 1 pint water

Granulated Onion

• large pinch of bouquet garni

1 Teaspoon Unsweetened

• 1 15-oz. can chickpeas, rinsed and drained

Cocoa Powder

• 1 head organic kale, cleaned, stems removed, and chopped

5 lbs. Beef Ribs

Slice the pork tenderloin into 1/4"medallions, then cut each medallion in half. Set aside.

In a bowl, add the flour (unseasoned). Set it next to the pork.

I'm usually a pork rib guy. But recently, I bought a nice slab of beef ribs from my butcher. I love the flavor of the Kona coffee crusted NY Strip at the Capital Grille in Providence, and decided to try my hand at my own coffee rub for these ribs. (If you don’t have Kona coffee on hand, use your favorite.)

In a bowl, combine the brown sugar, coffee, salt, garlic, onion, and cocoa. Mix well.

Heat a heavy skillet big enough to hold all the pork. Add a few tablespoons of olive oil or pork lard. Drop the pork pieces in the flour, coating them well, then shaking off the excess. (No egg wash needed.) Place them carefully in the pan and brown them on both sides. They don’t need to cook all the way through.

Remove the skin on the underside of the ribs. I do this by sliding a knife under a corner of the skin, exposing just enough of a tab that I can grab onto. The meat can be slippery, so pulling the skin off with a folded piece of paper towel in your hands gives a better grip.

Leaving the pork in the pan, add the onions and stir, cooking for a couple of minutes. Then add the carrot and celery slices, stirring again. Sprinkle in the garlic salt and pepper, stirring again.

Cut the ribs into 2-rib portions. Place all the rib pieces on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil.

Add the stock, the wine, and the pint of water. Bring it to a boil and let it simmer for a few minutes, stirring gently.

Generously rub the coffee rub into all sides of the rib pieces, turning them meat-side-up, and let them sit on the baking sheet at room temperature for about a half hour, while you warm the oven up to 350 degrees.

Place the sheet pan of ribs in the oven and bake for 30 minutes.

Add the chick peas. Then add the kale, a handful at a time, waiting for the greens to wilt into the soup before adding another handful. Do this until all the kale is in the pan. Add the pinch of bouquet garni. Bring the soup to a boil again, then reduce it to a medium-low simmer, uncovered.

Remove the ribs from the oven, and lower the heat to 250. Wrap the ribs in aluminum foil, 2 sections per packet, and place them back on the baking sheet. Place the baking sheet back in the oven and cook them for 4 more hours.

The soup is ready when the veggies are tender, about 15 minutes. Keep an eye on it, and if the liquid has evaporated and it looks too thick, add more water, bringing to a boil with each addition, then reducing the heat.

Remove the ribs from the oven and take them out of the foil, placing them back on the baking sheet and back into the 250-degree oven for 30 more minutes.

Taste for seasoning before serving.