Recipe: Roasted Pork Chops and Veggies and my thoughts on the Potato/Paleo debate

While browsing through Rachael Ray's magazine, I came across a few recipes that sounded yummy, of course. This recipe comes across Paleo friendly to me. The discrepancy would be about the potatoes. I've been doing some research about why sweet potatoes are paleo approved but other potatoes are not. What I've learned is that potatoes are obviously, a very starchy tuber. They register high on the glycemic index, which can result in spikes in blood sugar. So if you're diabetic, for example, you would want to avoid this. But if blood sugar is not an issue for you, you're probably ok. Sweet potatoes versus other types of potatoes contain about the same amount of nutrients. With the exception of vitamin A. A crazy amount of vitamin A is present in sweet potatoes, but none in regular potatoes. K, so sweet potatoes get the point there. Another, and most significant factor about regular potatoes, is they contain high amounts of a toxin called saponins. These are not at all present in sweet potatoes. Here's the thing about these saponins; they're present in other healthy vegetables as well! Spinach, asparagus, yams, onions, tomatoes and peppers all have varying levels of saponins, all paleo diet approved. Seems a bit silly and contradictory to me. If you want to remove a large amount of this "toxin" from your taters, simply remove the skin. By the way, saponins haven't been researched fully enough to know exactly what levels are enough to cause an adverse response in the body. But the effects are thought to cause some level of gastro-instestinal problems. It seems there is a bit of a debate in the paleo community about these incredibly available potatoes. So my personal decision is to include them in my diet. They have come out the ground, a gift from the earth, in their whole form. Seems legit. I choose to prepare them how I want. It most certainly is not a processed food. And avoiding processed foods is a huge goal in going paleo! 

 And here goes the recipe:

  Roasted Pork chops and veggies

  serves 4

-6 tbsp olive oil

-2 tbsp chopped fresh thyme

-1 tbsp smoke paprika

-4 cloves garlic, grated or made into a paste

-salt and pepper

-4 bone in pork chops

-12 oz trimmed green beans

-4 yukon gold potatoes

-1 jarred roasted red pepper, coarsely chopped

 1) Preheat oven to 475 degrees

2) In a large bowl, mix 3 tbsp olive oil, lemon juice, thyme, paprika, and garlic, season with salt and pepper. Add the pork chops and coat.

3) On a large rimmed baking sheet, toss the green beans, potatoes, and red pepper with the remaining 3 tbsp olive oil, season. Spread in an even layer. Nestle the pork chops among the vegetables.

4) Roast, turning the pork chops once, until the vegetables are tender and the chops are just cooked through, about 25 minutes.

 Here are some changes and thoughts on the recipe: First of all, with as much cooking as I do, I still don't own a microplane, so I can't grate my garlic, and making it into a paste would mean adding more salt. No, thanks. Chopping tiny herbs like thyme are usually annoying for me. I happened to get a new coffee grinder for Christmas and I decided I would dedicate that grinder to small tasks like chopping herbs. Despite also getting a beautiful new 9 cup Kitchen Aid food processor from my husband, it's much too big for such a small amount. It worked wonderfully to finely chop the thyme and then to separately grind my garlic into a perfect paste like substance.

Euroware Stainless Steel Coffee Grinder 

Secondly, instead of using jarred roasted red peppers, I used sliced fresh red bell peppers, since they were going to be roasted in in the oven anyway and this would cut out a more processed ingredient.

 The final change I would recommend would be the cooking time.  The recipe calls for a 25 minute total cooking time with one flip of the meat. I followed the directions, only to be disappointed that the chops came out pretty dry and a bit tough. And, I actually had to remove the chops, stir the veggies and roast another 5 minutes to get the potato wedges cooked through. If I did it over, I would roast the veggies for 10 minutes, then add the chops, and cook for an additional 20 minutes. For a total cook time from start to finish of 30 minutes.

Aside from a few smalls tweaks, the overall flavor was delicous! I would make this again.

I'll leave you with 2 sweet selfies Steven snapped this evening when I wasn't looking.

They're pretty much twins. :)