Packed full of flavour, the whole family will enjoy this delicious lemongrass pork dish. It’s fresh, light and perfect for the Spring/Summer season!

It also has plenty of health benefits: along with lean protein, there’s 3.5 serves of veggies per serve. Plus, your gut will love it – it has 15g of fibre per serve and is a good source of resistant starch.

FYI: resistant starch is a really valuable form of fibre. It’s arguably the trickiest to get, too – it’s found in things like underripe bananas and starchy foods that have been cooked and cooled, like rice and potatoes (yep, potato salad is a good gut food – along with this lemongrass pork recipe!). It’s great for your gut because it encourages the growth of a bacteria that produces a special short-chain fatty acid called butyrate. Butyrate is important for the health of your bowel wall and optimal immune function. Resistant starch, along with insoluble and soluble fibre, are all critical to maintaining good gut health.

We also love this recipe because it’s a lower-carb spin on fried rice! The basmati rice in the recipe is bulked up with cauliflower rice, so you’ll still get delicious flavour with less carbs and extra veggies to boot. It’s a nice way to still get the traditional texture of fried rice, too.

This delicious lemongrass pork recipe comes from The CSIRO Healthy Gut Diet. This comprehensive guide explores how our gut is critical to a healthy metabolism, brain and immune system. It also has 85 delicious recipes and fibre-boosted meal plans, which make eating well so easy. The CSIRO have done extensive research in this area, so this book is a must-read if you want to know more about how to truly nourish your gut. Enjoy!

Lemongrass Pork With Cauliflower Fried Rice And Cashews

Serves: 4
Preparation: 25 minutes
Cooking: 25 minutes, plus rice cooking time

Ingredients

• 3 teaspoons fish sauce
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 2 stalks lemongrass, white part only, finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground white pepper
• 4 × 200g pork butterfly (loin medallion) steaks, all visible fat removed
• Olive oil spray, for cooking
• 8 inner iceberg lettuce leaf cups
• 1 Lebanese cucumber, chopped
• 1/3 cup (50g) roasted unsalted cashews, coarsely chopped
• Lime wedges, to serve

Cauliflower Fried Rice

• 500g cauliflower, cut into small florets
• 1½ cups (180g) frozen peas
• Olive oil spray, for cooking
• 150g sugar snap peas, trimmed
• 120g snake beans, cut into 3cm lengths
• 1 small head broccoli, trimmed and cut into small florets
• 120g button mushrooms, trimmed and thickly sliced
• 4 spring onions, finely chopped
• 1 carrot, coarsely grated
• 1 cup (185g) cooked basmati rice
• 2 teaspoons salt-reduced soy sauce
• Sesame oil, for drizzling

Instructions

1. Place the fish sauce, garlic, lemongrass and pepper in a small bowl and stir to combine. Place the pork in a baking dish, spoon the marinade over to coat each side, cover and set aside.
2. To make the fried rice, place the cauliflower in a food processor and process until finely chopped, then set aside. Cook the peas in a saucepan of simmering water for 3 minutes until tender, then drain and set aside.
3. Spray a chargrill pan with olive oil and heat over high heat (or heat a barbecue grill plate to high). Add the pork and cook for 5–6 minutes on each side until browned and just cooked through. Transfer to a plate and cover loosely with foil to rest.
4. Spray a wok or large non-stick heavy-based frying pan with olive oil and heat over medium heat. Add the sugar snap peas and beans and stir-fry for 2–3 minutes until just softened. Transfer to a heatproof bowl and set aside. Add the broccoli and mushrooms to the wok, spray with more oil if necessary, and stir-fry for 3 minutes or until tender, then transfer to the bowl. Add the cauliflower, spring onion and carrot to the wok and stir-fry for 2 minutes, then add the rice, peas, reserved vegetables and soy sauce and stir-fry for 2–3 minutes until heated through. Drizzle with sesame oil and set aside.
5. Cut the pork into thick slices on the diagonal. Place two lettuce cups into the base of 4 bowls. Add one-quarter of the fried rice and cucumber and a sliced pork steak to each one. Scatter over the chopped cashews and serve immediately with lime wedges.

Recipe extracted from The CSIRO Healthy Gut Diet by Dr Tony Bird, Dr Michael Conlon and Pennie Taylor. Available now, Macmillan Australia, RRP $34.99