Pork Chops with Pear and Celery Slaw with butternut squash soup
Crisp and refreshing pear and celery slaw adds brightness to pan-seared pork chops in this recipe that was first featured in October 2014. A cup of creamy pureed butternut squash soup on the side adds heartiness and warmth to this comforting fall meal.
Smarts: Lemon juice enhances the flavors of fruit and celery, making the slaw even more vibrant.
Ingredients
- Celery - 3 ribs, julienned
- Chives - 1 Tbsp, chopped
- Pork chops, bone-in or out - 4
- Pears, Asian - 1, julienned
- Lemon juice - 2 Tbsp
- Maple syrup - 1 Tbsp
- Oil, cooking - 1 Tbsp
- Onions, medium - 1, chopped
- Butternut squash cubes - 2 lbs
- Apples - 1, peeled and cubed
- Butter - 2 Tbsp
- Brown sugar - 1 tsp
- Cumin - 1/2 tsp
- Nutmeg (opt) - 1/4 tsp
- Stock, any type - 4 cups
- Sour cream - 1/4 cup (sub plain or Greek yogurt)
Nutrition Facts
Prep
- Onions / Squash - Prep as directed. Store separately. (Can be done up to 5 days ahead)
- Celery / Chives - Prep as directed. Store separately. (Can be done up to 3 days ahead)
- Pork chops - Season with some salt and pepper and tenderize with a fork. (Can be done 1 day ahead)
- Pears / Apples - Prep as directed. Store separately.
- Make slaw - Toss celery, pears, and chives with lemon juice, maple syrup, and a pinch of salt.
Make
- Heat a Dutch oven or stock pot with butter over medium heat.
- When butter melts add onions and saute until onions are soft, 3 to 4 minutes. Add brown sugar, cumin, and nutmeg and stir for 1 minute more.
- Stir in squash and apples and saute to coat in spices, 2 to 3 minutes.
- Pour stock over squash and apples and bring to a simmer.
- Cover and simmer soup until squash is tender, 15 to 20 minutes.
- After soup has been simmering for ~10 minutes, heat a skillet with oil over medium-high heat. Add pork chops and sear on each side for ~3 minutes. For thin pork chops, this should be enough heat to cook them through. If you’re using thicker pork chops, lower heat and cover with a piece of foil until pork reaches 145F / 63C degrees.
- Cover pork and let rest for 5 minutes.
- While pork rests, transfer soup to a blender (or use an immersion blender) and blend until smooth. (If soup is too thick, you can add some more stock or some water to thin it.) Taste and season with some salt and pepper.
- Reserve 1 cup / 237 mL of the soup (for 4 servings; adjust if customizing) for Tuesday.
- Slice pork and serve with slaw on top. Enjoy with soup on the side. Top soup with a spoonful of sour cream.
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Reviews
This meal has 49 reviews
Loved it! Made the pork chops straight from the recipe (tenderized and generously seasoned with salt and pepper), turned out super moist and tasty! As for the soup, I roasted the butternut squash in the oven for 40 minutes at 400'F with butter, sea salt, pepper, and nutmeg (face up for the last 15 minutes), and used that instead of raw cubes. I also used some good quality chicken broth along with everything else the recipes called for, and I didn't even need to add any seasoning at the end, it was perfect! (also, used greek yogurt instead of sour cream, boyfriend liked that much better) Def. 5 stars, and I'm very excited for the mac n cheese tomorrow :-)
The slaw is great, the pork chops were great. I added salt and pepper to them. The soup made WAY too much and was a little bland.
It was fine. But the real winner was the Mac-n-chz made from the leftover squash soup.
The pork chops were ok (I over salted mine), but the slaw + pork + soup went together soo well. I ended up making the soup again last night.
Wow, the slaw was awesome, definitely make that again. The soup was ok, not my fav Cooksmarts soup. I made ribs in the slow cooker rather than pork chops because that's what I had on hand.
This was maybe the most delicious thing I've ever eaten. I said to my husband that if I'd gone to a fancy restaurant, ordered it, and paid a lot of money for it, I'd have been happy with having ordered it. That said, I did throw the butternut squash in the oven halved and let it roast, then just scooped the roasted squash into the soup when I made it. This takes more time, but significantly less active time, since dissecting squash, in general, sucks. The soup was amazing, and I am particularly fond of a well-cooked pork chops anyways. The slaw was unique and tasty and paired really well.