Lentil-Braised Pork with Olives

In the January/February 2016 edition of Taste magazine, there were quite a few Cook It Now! recipes that I literally wanted to cook now.  One of them was this chicken curry.  Another recipe that I made was Lentil Braised Pork with Olives.

As you can see, it is a bright and colourful dish.  It is full of lots of good things, and is only 426 calories per serve, with 15g of fat.  It is also tasty.  Win, win.

To make this dish, you will need:

1 1/2 tbspns olive oil
4 pork cutlets (I just used pork medallions)
 1 chopped brown onion
2 thinly sliced garlic cloves
1 tspn fennel seeds
200g halved grape tomatoes
185ml dry white wine
185ml chicken stock
2 tspns Dijon mustard
400g can brown lentils
2 tbspns lemon juice
1/2 cup chopped parsley
85g sliced green olives

Heat the oil in a large frying pan, season the pork with salt and pepper and cook for 3 minutes in the pan or until browned each side.  Put the pork on a plate.

Add the onion and garlic to the pan, cooking until softened.  Add the fennel seeds and cook for 1 minute.  Add the tomatoes and cook for another 1 minute.  Add the wine and simmer for 2 minutes or until the wine is reduced by half.

Stir in the stock and mustard and simmer for 5 minutes.  Stir in the lentils.

Return the pork to the pan and cook, turning the pork halfway, for 6 minutes or until cooked through.  Stir in 1 tbspn lemon juice and season with salt and pepper.

In a bowl, combine the parsley, olives and remaining lemon juice.  Serve the pork topped with the olive mixture.