3 Healthy Ways to Prepare Pork During National Pork Month

While pork is historically considered an unclean meat, it doesn’t have to be with today’s clean farming practices, readily available grass fed meats, and healthier preparation techniques. If you’re celebrating National Pork Month and wish to enjoy healthier forms of your favorite pork dishes this October, here are three healthy takes on a few classic pork dishes you know and love.

Healthier Crispy Oven-Cooked Bacon

Bacon of any variety offers a different nutritional profile than an alternative like grass fed beef liver. But that doesn’t mean you can’t indulge in one of breakfast’s favorite meats in a cleaner, healthier way. Here’s how to make crispy oven-cooked bacon with grass-fed pork and a parchment-paper-lined baking sheet:

1. Step one: Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
2. Step two: Place strips of grass-fed bacon on your parchment-lined baking sheet. Since your bacon will shrink as it’s cooked, you can place them very close together to cook more bacon strips.
3. Step three: Bake your bacon strips for 10 minutes, flip them with tongs, and bake for another 10 minutes.

 

To make your bacon even healthier, lay your bacon strips on a paper towel and cover them with a second paper towel to soak up excess bacon grease before serving them with pasture-raised eggs, hashbrowns, and toast.

Low-Sugar Pulled Pork Barbecue Sandwiches

Start with corn-and-soy-free pork tenderloin for a healthier take on pulled pork sandwiches. Cook your pulled pork using your favorite slow cooker pulled pork recipe. Then, swap your traditional store-bought barbecue sauce for a homemade, low-sugar alternative naturally sweetened with dates and tomatoes.

Once your pulled pork and homemade barbecue sauce are ready, place your pulled pork, low-sugar barbecue sauce, and coleslaw on a whole-wheat bun for a healthy, hearty sandwich perfect for lunch or dinner. To make this meal even more nutritious, swap your whole wheat bun for fresh, crunchy, buttered lettuce pieces and turn your barbecue sandwiches into low-sugar pulled pork barbecue wraps.

Quick Pork Vegetable Fried Brown Rice

While the pork fried rice on your local Chinese restaurant’s menu may be anything but healthy, you can make a healthy version of this favorite Chinese restaurant dish at home with a few easy swaps. Here’s how to make quick pork fried rice the healthier way:

1. Step one: Heat one tablespoon of olive oil over medium-high heat in a large nonstick skillet. Add two eggs and stir until cooked. Then, remove the cooked eggs and cut them into strips.
2. Step two: In the same skillet, add two tablespoons of olive oil, green onions, ginger, garlic, and five-spice powder. Cook and stir for 45 seconds.
3. Step three: Add brown rice, pork, peas, and carrots. Cook for two minutes while stirring frequently. Then, drizzle soy sauce and gently stir in egg strips. Cook for another minute.

Celebrate National Pork Month with these three healthy alternatives to the classic pork dishes you know and love. Bon Appetit!

About Primal Pastures

From cooking hot dogs around a campfire to eating traditional family recipes around the kitchen table, life is filled with wholesomely good moments. You can make the most of these incredible everyday moments by incorporating meats raised on food that’s just as good. Primal Pastures’ priority is to raise all their chicken, hogs, cattle, and other grass-fed animals on pastures maintained with regenerative farming techniques while feeding them only the highest-quality food free from corn, soy, and artificial hormones. Since starting with 50 chickens in their backyard, Primal Pastures has made it their mission to raise the bar with their farms and provide only the cleanest, nutrient-dense, humanely raised meats possible so people can enjoy more of life’s wholesome moments with clean, grass-fed pasture raised chicken, beef, and other proteins that are just as good.

Celebrate National Pork Month with humanely raised pork at https://primalpastures.com/