Growing up my Dad did a good amount of the cooking for our family, which is probably why I took an interest in cooking at such a young age. He loves mushrooms… me too Dad, me too. One of his signature dishes was cream of mushroom pork chops with rice. I loved it, fast forward 15 years and we’ve redesigned that recipe to be keto friendly. See, one thing I’ve noticed from similar recipes is that they often call for a can of cream of mushroom soup.
But what’s in those cream of mushroom soups?
Well, let’s take a look at the ingredient list from Campbell's Cream of Mushroom:
INGREDIENTS: WATER, MUSHROOMS, VEGETABLE OIL (CORN, COTTONSEED, CANOLA, AND/OR SOYBEAN), MODIFIED FOOD STARCH, WHEAT FLOUR, CONTAINS LESS THAN 2% OF: SALT, MONOSODIUM GLUTAMATE, SOY PROTEIN CONCENTRATE, DEHYDRATED CREAM (CREAM [MILK], SOY LECITHIN), YEAST EXTRACT, FLAVORING, DEHYDRATED GARLIC.
Vegetable oil? Modified Food Starch? Wheat Flour? Soy Protein? Flavoring? Wtf is flavoring? Yeaaaaaa, I’ll pass. Thanks anyway can of soup, but we’ll take it from here.
Corn, Cottonseed, canola and soybean oil are all cheap, damaged and toxic oils that lead to oxidation and free radicals. Those are bad news. Free radicals are basically atoms that are missing an electron, making them reactive and causing a chain reaction of oxidation, inflammation and autoimmune conditions. (1)
You can avoid all of this with a little heavy cream, olive oil and broth, which is exactly what we’re about to do! Let’s get to it…
The Ingredients…
- 1 pound Pork Chops
- ¼ cup Olive Oil
- 4 ounces Mushroom
- ¼ cup Shallot*
- 1 cup Heavy Cream
- ½ cup Chicken Broth
- 2 tablespoon Butter
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- ½ Teaspoon Black Pepper
- ½ Teaspoon Thyme (not necessary but great flavor)
- Fresh Parsley to Garnish
*Shallots are basically a onion/garlic hybrid. If you don’t have a shallot I’d use 2 ounces of onion and a tablespoon of garlic
Cauliflower Rice Ingredients…
- 3 cups Riced Cauliflower
- 1 tablespoon Butter
- Salt and Pepper to taste
The Steps....
In a large pan, add half of the olive oil on medium heat.
Sear pork chops, season with salt and pepper and cook for about 7-8 minutes on each side (depending on thickness). Remove from pan and let them rest.
Add remaining olive oil, shallots and mushrooms. Cook for 2 minutes just until they begin to brown.
Add in heavy cream, chicken broth, 1 tbsp butter, salt, pepper, thyme. Reduce to a low heat and allow to simmer until broth cooks down and you are left with a creamy consistency. Allow about 15 minutes for this, stirring every couple of minutes. If you are getting any burning on the pan, lower your heat! This is just a simmer, so you’re going to want to have some bubbling but minimal, too much bubbling will lead to burning.
Slice Pork chops into strips of desired size and add them to the pan.
Stir thoroughly mixing everything up and garnish with parsley. Remove pan from heat.
Serve over cauliflower rice and enjoy!
Cauliflower Rice…
This is a pretty basic “rice” recipe.
I usually buy the frozen Organic Riced Cauliflower from Trader Joe’s. Microwave the bag (3 cups) for about 7-8 minutes. This will help evaporate much of the water so you don’t have soggy cauliflower.
Add 1 tbsp butter, salt and pepper and mix.
Boom. Done.
Take a big heaping scoop of cauliflower rice and smother it with deliciousness. Garnish with (more) parsley, I like parsley, and enjoy!
