This Thai spiced pork rice bowl is gloriously flavoursome and is a great way to change up your usual lunch or dinner. Caramelised spicy minced pork, sweet pineapple, pickled cucumber and fresh chillis sit on a bed of rice and really make the most brilliant combo. It’s also naturally gluten and dairy free.
It’s a Thai inspired recipe, using the combination of spicy, sweet, salty and sour flavours that are the core to Thai cooking. The spice in the sauce comes from a hit of sriracha and the salt from fish sauce and gluten free soy sauce (tamari). Paired with sweet brown sugar and sour white wine vinegar, it creates the most delicious flavour explosion.
Quick to cook, this pork rice bowl is brilliant as a mid-week meal. Yet it’s also fancy enough to serve to guests, as you can really go to town on that presentation if you want. Feel free to be flexible about adding extra veggies too. Plus, you could also sub the rice for a crunchy salad if you want a lighter meal.
How Spicy is This Pork Rice Bowl?
It’s mildly spiced, but you can up that heat factor to hot by increasing the amount of sriracha in the sauce. Or topping with extra hot chillis. I’ve detailed how much extra to add in the ingredients. Allowing you to tailor the spice level to your personal taste.
Tips for Making the Pork Mince Extra Tasty
Caramelising the pork mince during cooking is really important, as then such a lovely flavour develops. Plus added texture. Have confidence when leaving the sauce to reduce down and concentrate in the meat, it is worth it! This is a cooking tip I picked up from Nagi on recipetineats.com, who has a pork dish using this technique. It’s a great way to enhance those flavours.
Thai Spiced Pork Rice Bowl Recipe (GF, DF)
This recipe make 2 generous pork rice bowls. You’ll find the method below, plus some photos to help guide you through the recipe.
Feel free to email me any questions or comments you might have. You can contact me at laura@mygfguide.com or message me on Instagram/Facebook @myglutenfreeguide.
If you enjoy this Thai spiced pork rice bowl recipe, I would be really grateful if you could leave a star rating or review on the recipe card below. Thank you!
Laura xxx
Thai Spiced Pork Rice Bowl (GF, DF)
Ingredients
- 180g rice (jasmine or basmati)
- A bunch of spring onions (approx 6 spring onions)
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- A thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger, grated
- 500g pork mince (I used a 5% fat variety)
- 4 tbsp light brown sugar
- 1 tbsp tamari (gluten free soy sauce)
- 1 tbsp fish sauce
- 1 tbsp white wine vinegar
- 1 tbsp sriracha (for mild spice - if you like it spicy feel free to add 2 for medium or 3 tbsp for hot)
- 200g fresh pineapple, cut into small cubes
- Optional to serve: 1 red chilli, black sesame seeds
For the pickled cucumber
- Half a cucumber
- 75ml white wine vinegar
- 1.5 tsp caster sugar
- 0.5 tsp fine salt
Instructions
- First, make the pickled cucumber. Finely slice the cucumber into rounds. Then in a small bowl, mix the 75ml white wine vinegar with the salt and caster sugar. Mix to dissolve the sugar and salt and add the sliced cucumber to the bowl. The slices will be mostly covered, but if some are sticking out just give the slices a couple of stirs while they are pickling. Set aside while you make the rice bowl.
- Get the rice on to cook, per the packet instructions. This normally takes about 15 mins so start now and it'll be ready at the same time as the pork.
- Chop the spring onions into thin rounds and set a small amount aside (to be used as garnish at the end). Add the rest to a wok or high-sided frying pan, along with the minced garlic cloves, grated ginger and 1 tbsp oil. Cook over a medium-low heat for a couple of minutes until fragrant.
- Add the pork mince to the pan, turn the heat up to medium and stir fry until the mince is cooked on the outside and has turned pale.
- Now add the brown sugar, sriracha, tamari, fish sauce and 1 tbsp white wine vinegar to the pan. Mix everything together then leave to cook, without stirring, for 5 minutes. All the liquid will reduce and the sugar will caramelise on the meat, giving the pork a lovely golden brown colour.
- Stir and repeat the process - leaving the pork to cook for a minute or so at a time (keeping an eye on it to make sure the sugar doesn't burn), until the mince is nicely coloured. Then take off the heat.
- To assemble the bowls, fill each half with rice and half with pork mince. Add chopped pineapple and the drained pickled cucumber.
- Garnish with sliced red chilli, the remaining spring onions and black sesame seeds (if you have them). Enjoy!
For more gluten free bowl ideas, why not try some of my other recipes while you are here. Book mark your favourites for later:
Enjoy! Laura xxx
