Vietnamese minced pork with rice and Vietnamese salad

This is a tasty, light and healthy Vietnamese style salad recipe. Tasty and captures so many South East Asian flavours. Not too spicy so very suitable for all the family. Served with baby cos and rice.

It is similar to Thai’s famous Larb, but much easier to cook! It is ready in under 30 minutes, so is a quick meal for a busy weekday dinner.  

Ingredients

2 tablespoon vegetable oil

2 tablespoon finely diced ginger or ginger paste

2 tablespoon lemongrass finely diced or use lemongrass paste from the supermarket

1 small red or green chilli, finely sliced (optional)

2 cloves garlic, finely diced

2 onions thinly sliced

1kg pork mince (get the best quality you can – it will still be cheap)

1/2 cup (65ml) fresh lime juice or “cheat” lime juice from the supermarket

2 tablespoons fish sauce

1.5 tablespoons brown sugar

1 supermarket packet of baby cos lettuce/ leaves

3 spring onions sliced thinly

4 tablespoons fresh Vietnamese mint sliced or standard mint

2 cups coriander leaves diced

Cooking instructions

Prep: 10 minutes | Cook: 10 minutes | Extra time: 5 minutes, cooling

1. Heat the oil in a large wok, (you can use a frying pan if you don't own a wok). Stir fry the ginger, lemon grass, chilli and garlic for about 1 minute or until fragrant.

2. Add the onions and cook for a couple of minutes until softening and starting to brown a tad
3. Add the pork and cook for about 5-6 minutes or until it is cooked through.
4. Combine the lime juice, fish sauce and brown sugar. Pour over the pork mixture and mix through
5. Toss the salad greens, mint and most of coriander leaves, (leave some coriander to garnish), with the pork mixture.

6. Serve the salad in a bowl and garnish with the balance of coriander leaves.

If you want to bolster this dish, cook some rice and serve with the dish.

Serves: 6-8