Slow-Roasted Pork Belly With Seasonal Vegetables

Pork belly recipe & content provided by Ryan Carter, Live Vitae

Slow-roasted pork belly is one of my favorite low-effort recipes. Because you baste the protein in its own fat, this pork belly recipe yields plenty of flavor. An additional bonus is the unique crackling on top, which everyone fights over in my family. To perfect your crackling, ask your butcher to make criss cross scores along the skin.

Pork belly is generally a cheaper option to most prime roasting joints — you just need to know how to cook it. The whole process is fairly simple: Just a quick dry rub of spices and an adjustment to the oven temperature is all you need. I like to start roasting the pork belly with a moderate amount of heat. After 20 minutes, I turn down the temperature and baste the meat.

This pork belly recipe pairs cumin seeds and fennel seeds, as they complement pork well and provide polyphenol protection to the meat while cooking. I use a trivet of vegetables and herbs as a base to sit the meat on top to keep it moist and allow more flavor to infuse.

By starting the cooking in the earlier part of the day, you can allow the oven to do all the work and return several hours later and reap the rewards of this succulent oven-roasted pork belly.

Slow-Roasted Pork Belly With Seasonal Vegetables

Start to Finish: 3 hours or more

Ingredients:

Pork

• 1 tablespoon cumin seeds, freshly ground
• 1 tablespoon fennel seeds, freshly ground
• 4 pounds pasture-raised pork belly (skin scored criss-cross ¼-inch deep)

Vegetable trivet (optional)

• 2 carrots, roughly chopped
• 1 celery stalk, roughly chopped
• 1 red onion, roughly chopped
• Few rosemary sprigs and thyme

Seasonal vegetables

• 1 medium red cabbage
• 3 heads of bok choy ( or any asian green)
• 1 tablespoon grass-fed ghee
• 2 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• Pink Himalayan salt, to taste

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 400F. To form your trivet, line the bottom of your roasting pan with the chopped vegetables and herbs. Place the pork belly on top.
2. Massage ground spices all over the pork. Once oven is at temperature, place pork on top rack and leave for 20 minutes.
3. Add a splash of water to the pan to keep pork belly moist. Then, reduce oven temperature to 320F. Cook for 3 hours, or more — until pork registers an internal temperature of 145F.
4. Fifteen minutes before the pork is ready, prepare the vegetables. Halve and quarter the red cabbage, then slice. Add to a wide saucepan with ghee and a sprig or two of rosemary. Allow to cook down over moderate heat until tender — about 5-10 minutes.
5. Halve the bok choy and place in the steamer basket of a saucepan. Lightly steam for 2 minutes until al dente.
6. Remove the pork belly from the oven and allow it to rest for a few minutes.
7. Carve the tender pork belly into 6 portions and plate. Add the vegetables to plates and drizzle with extra virgin olive oil. Season with pink Himalayan salt, to taste.

Serves: 6

Nutritional Information (Per Serving):

• Calories: 642.2
• Protein: 33g
• Carbs: 8g
• Fiber: 5g
• Sugar: 3g
• Fat: 53g
• Saturated Fat: 26.4g
• Polyunsaturated: 1.3g
• Monounsaturated: 22.9g
• Trans fat: 0g
• Cholesterol: 120.7mg
• Sodium: 500mg
• Potassium: 390mg
• Vitamin A: 508.8ug
• Vitamin C: 80.8mg
• Calcium: 113.5mg
• Iron: 2mg