This Asian inspired noodle dish packs a great flavor. Recently, while paging through a magazine – or maybe it was spotting a magazine while walking past the magazine racks at a book store, I noticed a picture of a ground pork noodle bowl. That sounded so good to me, I decided to make my version of the picture I saw last night for dinner.

Starting with a pound of ground pork, I built my dish from there. I added kosher salt, pepper and red pepper flakes to the pork and cooked it for about 5 minutes, when it was browned and crumbly.

I cooked the pork until it was about one minute away from being done and added fresh, grated ginger and  minced garlic. Because I didn’t want to the garlic to cook too long, I waited to add it and the ginger.

Once the garlic and ginger were married into the ground pork, I added three cups of low sodium vegetable broth, the juice of two limes and two tablespoons of low sodium soy sauce. I then added a bag of spinach and let it simmer until the spinach had wilted down. Isn’t it amazing how little spinach you end up with when adding an entire bag?! Looks like so much when your skillet is overflowing with spinach and then you end up with what seems like not very much. However, not very much was the perfect amount for this dish. 🙂

Once the spinach had wilted, I added 10 ounces of cremini mushrooms, sliced, and one rounded cup of shredded carrots. I bought a bag of already shredded carrots, but you can definitely buy whole carrots and cut them into thin matchsticks if you prefer.

I let this simmer for about 10 minutes while my whole wheat spaghetti noodles were cooking. Once the noodles had finished, I added them directly to the skillet and tossed everything together.

To garnish this wonderfully flavored dish, I added scallions and another shake of red pepper flakes.

Ingredients

1 pound ground pork

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes, plus more for garnish

4 cloves garlic, minced

3 tablespoons ginger, grated

3 limes, juice of

6 ounces fresh spinach

10 ounces cremini mushrooms, sliced

1 cup shredded carrots

3 cups reduced sodium vegetable broth

3 tablespoons reduced sodium soy sauce

2 tablespoons olive oil

12 ounce package whole wheat spaghetti

scallions (green part only), for garnish

Directions

1. In large skillet, heat oil. Add pork, kosher salt, pepper and red pepper flakes. Cook until browned and crumbly. When there is just about 1 minute to go in cooking, add the ginger and garlic. Mix well.
2. Add vegetable broth, lime juice and soy sauce to skillet.
3. Add spinach and cook until it has wilted.
4. Once spinach has wilted, add carrots and mushrooms. Let simmer for 10 minutes.
5. Add cooked spaghetti noodles to skillet and toss.
6. Garnish with chopped scallions and red pepper flakes.

Enjoy!

Until next time, Kris