BBQ Pork Chops with Sauce Verte
The sauce is a cross between the Argentinian chimichurri and an Italian ‘salsa verde’. Ben’s version is hand-chopped, so has lots of texture and isn’t too liquid or smooth. This recipe is for a big batch of sauce verte – as it’s a great sauce with all barbecued food!
Ingredients
- 4 pork chops free-range or organic *
- 1 bunch asparagus with the bottoms, snapped off
Ingredients – Marinade:
- 2 garlic cloves sliced
- 1 sprig Rosemary
- 1 sprig thyme
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- black pepper to season
Ingredients – Spicy Sauce Verte:
- 1 big bunch parsley roughly chopped
- 1 big handful basil roughly chopped
- 1 big handful coriander roughly chopped
- 1 Red Chilli deseeded and finely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves crushed
- 1 shallot(s) finely chopped
- 20 g Dijon mustard or 10g English mustard
- 8-10 anchovies roughly chopped
- 2 tsp capers roughly chopped
- 2 tsp Pickled Gherkins pickles, cornichons, roughly chopped
- 30 ml cider vinegar
- 30 ml red wine vinegar
- 80 ml extra virgin olive oil
Instructions
- Mix all the ingredients for the sauce verte together in a big bowl. Season, and put in the fridge. This can be done the day before you require it
- Bring a big pan of salted water to the boil, blanch asparagus for 10-20 seconds, then plunge into iced water
- Marinate the pork chops and leave in the fridge for a few hours, or overnight if possible
- Take the pork out of the fridge 40-60 minutes before you want to cook it. Season generously with salt and cook over high heat on the BBQ. Alternatively, you can cook it on high heat in a frying pan – remove any bits of marinade that may burn (garlic, rosemary etc.)
- After a couple of minutes on the first side, look at the colour of the meat to see if they’re ready for turning – the meat should be a light golden brown. When the colour is even on both sides, take them off the heat and rest for five minutes
- Char the asparagus on the BBQ or in a frying pan
- Place pork chops on a bed of asparagus on a sharing plate, and drizzle with sauce verte
Notes
* Ideally, rib chops that come from the middle part of the loin. Ask the butcher for ‘French-trimmed’ if you’d like the bone exposed and visible as we did
** You can play around with which vinegar to use depending on what you have in your cupboard but steer clear of balsamic vinegar.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!