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Five-Spice Pork Stir-Fry with Sweet Potatoes and Snap Peas Recipe

Five-Spice Pork Stir-Fry with Sweet Potatoes and Snap Peas
Difficulty: Easy | Total Time: 25 mins | Makes: 4 servings

This simple, flavorful pork and veggie stir-fry is ideal for a weeknight meal.

Game plan: Freeze the pork for about 30 minutes prior to slicing—this makes it easier to cut into very thin, even pieces.

Snow peas can be substituted for the snap peas; just reduce their cooking time to 1 minute.

INGREDIENTS
  • 1/4 cup dry sherry or rice wine
  • 1/4 cup soy sauce
  • 1 teaspoon packed dark brown sugar
  • 2 tablespoons cornstarch
  • 1 pound boneless pork chops or pork tenderloin, trimmed of fat
  • 1/2 teaspoon five-spice powder
  • 3 tablespoons peanut or canola oil
  • 1 medium sweet potato (about 1 pound), peeled, halved lengthwise, and sliced crosswise into 1/8-inch-thick pieces
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 4 ounces baby spinach (about 4 cups), thoroughly washed
  • 2 cups snap peas, stem ends trimmed
  • 1 tablespoon minced garlic
  • 1 tablespoon grated ginger
  • 4 medium scallions, trimmed and thinly sliced
  • Steamed white rice for serving (optional)
INSTRUCTIONS
  1. Place the sherry or rice wine, 3 tablespoons of the soy sauce, the brown sugar, and 1 tablespoon of the cornstarch in a small bowl and whisk to combine; set aside.
  2. Slice the pork against the grain into even, paper-thin pieces and place in a large bowl. (It doesn’t matter how wide the slices are as long as they are even in thickness.) Add the remaining 1 tablespoon soy sauce, the remaining 1 tablespoon cornstarch, the five-spice powder, and 1 tablespoon of the oil and toss to evenly coat the pork. Set aside to marinate for 5 to 10 minutes.
  3. In a large nonstick frying pan with a tightfitting lid, heat the remaining 2 tablespoons oil over medium-high heat. When the oil just begins to smoke, add the pork and cook, stirring rarely, until browned and almost completely cooked through, about 2 minutes. Remove to a plate and set aside.
  4. Reduce the heat to medium and add the sweet potato and water to the pan. Cover and cook until the sweet potato is knife tender, about 3 to 5 minutes. Add the spinach, cover, and cook until it just begins to wilt, about 30 seconds.
  5. Remove the cover, increase the heat to high, add the snap peas, garlic, and ginger, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the snap peas are bright green, about 2 minutes. Whisk the reserved soy sauce mixture again until evenly combined and add it to the pan along with the reserved pork and any accumulated juices. Cook, stirring continuously, until the sauce has thickened and the pork is cooked through, about 30 seconds. Sprinkle with the scallions, stir, and serve immediately, with rice if desired.
    Write a review | 4 Reviews
  • Five-Spice Pork Stir-Fry with Sweet Potatoes and Snap Peas Recipe
    4

    I like this recipe's flavor, but with a few things different: First of all, the five-spice blend can be pretty tricky to come up with - I used ground cinnamon, fennel seeds, anise seeds, freshly ground black pepper and ground cloves - put them all in a mortar + pestle and ground everything up together. I ended up using about 1 teaspoon of this mix (double what the recipe calls for). Then, I'd really change the way the dish is prepared... the cooking instructions didn't seem linear to me and ended up requiring that you mush everything together at the end? Which is not the point of stir fry. For it to make more sense, you end up using a lot of pans and bowls, but it ends up with a much better texture. We fried the pork as instructed, set aside. Then I would slice the sweet potato just a tad thinner than 1/8" and just fry in the leftover pan oils from the pork. Don't know why they should be simmered, they just get mushy. Once those are tender, set aside with the pork. Then, I substituted 6 oz of kale for the 4 oz spinach (wanted to get more good stuff in the dish and we had lots of kale in the fridge). I used a little bit of water (in the same pan) to simmer the kale down until it was tender. Then, in a large WOK (because this is stir-fry, right?) I threw in a touch of olive oil and sauteed the garlic/ginger. Then added the soy sauce mixture. Then added in the snap peas until bright. Then added the kale. Then added the sweet potatoes. Then added the pork. That way the garlic and ginger have a chance to open up with the soy and sherry flavors - and everything else gets tossed in without getting mushy. Actually is really delicious this way!

  • Five-Spice Pork Stir-Fry with Sweet Potatoes and Snap Peas Recipe
    1

    Didn't like it. Was a mushy flavorless dish. If you actually like this dish then you have no taste buds!

  • We thought it was great, very tasty indeed.

  • Was looking for something to cook that used snap peas, saw this, realized I had the ingredients and gave it a whirl. Sorry, while the result was Ok (everyone ate it), the family voted thumbs down for having it again. Really, it seemed to be a sort of European-Chinese mash-up that didn't work. But the sweet potato/pork/snap peas/spinach/garlic part might be a good place to start for a new and different recipe.

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