Name: Pork with Turnips, Tomatillos, and Greens
Ingredients: pork shoulder; ground cumin; garlic; serrano chiles; salt; loin; turnip greens; turnips; fresh cilantro; husked; jalapeño chiles; black pepper; tomatillos

Liana Krissoff

Pork with Turnips, Tomatillos, and Greens

Preparation info

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Slow Cook Modern

By Liana Krissoff

Published 2017

About

WITH broiled sweet onions

ALSO GOOD WITH corn muffins OR cumin-spiced millet

This recipe is loosely based on one by Rick Bayless that my parents make with big chunks of pork shoulder their butcher calls “pork cushions”; I’ve never seen that terminology used myself, but it feels appropriate. Bayless’s process is of course a bit more complicated, and he uses potatoes and wild greens instead of turnips, but I really love the bite and faint bitterness of turnips and their greens (which mellow considerably over the course of a day in the slow cooker).

Ingredients

1 pound (455 g) tomatillos, husked and rinsed, chopped
1 large bunch fresh cilantro with stems, chopped
2 jalapeño or serrano chiles, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
¾ teaspoon ground cumin
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2½ pounds (1.2 kg) pork shoulder or loin, cut into big (3-inch/7.5-cm) chunks
12 ounces (340 g) turnips, peeled and cut into ¾-inch (2-cm) cubes
1 bunch (about 8 ounces/225 g) turnip greens

Method

Morning

Put the tomatillos, cilantro, chiles, garlic, cumin, 1½ teaspoons salt, and several grindings of pepper in the slow cooker. With an immersion blender, puree the sauce (or put everything in a blender, puree, and transfer to the cooker). Add the pork and turnips. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours.

Morning or Evening

Chop the turnip greens and submerge them in a large bowl of water, swishing to remove any sand. Lift them into a colander and repeat the rinse with clean water until no more sand remains. Drain the greens well and set aside in the fridge if doing this in the morning.

Evening

Turn the cooker to high. Gently fold the greens into the pork and sauce in the cooker, cover, and cook until the greens are wilted and just tender, 10 to 15 minutes. Season with more salt, if needed, and serve.