Goat Cheese and Pea Tendril Stuffed Pork Chops

On Sunday night, I was looking forward to once again cooking with the pea tendrils from Silverbrook Farm that I purchased from my farmer's market home delivery service.

I had previously used the pea leaves as greens for a simple salad so I wanted to use them a bit differently this time around.  I decided to sautee them and use it to stuff some pork chops. 

To start, I washed the pea leaves while B chopped up half a white onion.

I sauteed the white onion in olive oil with fresh cracked pepper and salt, along with a few cloves of chopped garlic.

I then added the pea leaves to the pan and lightly sauteed them.  When the pea leaves were wilted, I removed the onion, garlic and pea tendril mixture from the pan and put it in the fridge to cool. 

When the mixture had sufficiently cooled down, I added some gorgeous goat cheese to about three quarters of the green mixture.  This goat cheese was another recently acquired farmer's market delivery purchase.  It comes from Crystal Brook Farm in Sterling, Massachusetts.  This goat cheese was full of herb flavor from the Provencal marinade and a little went a long way with the pea tendril mixture.

B halved the pork chops and stuffed it with the goat cheese, pea tendril, white onion and garlic mixture. 

I placed a toothpick in the pork chop to keep the stuffing inside as much as possible while baking.  I placed the stuffed pork chops on a baking tray and gave the pork a simple seasoning of fresh cracked salt and pepper.  The pork chops were put in the oven at 400 degrees for about twelve minutes and then put on broil for about three minutes.

While the pork chops were in the oven, B cleaned and sliced up some local shiitake mushroom caps.

I sauteed the mushrooms in a pan with a little bit of olive oil, chicken broth and fresh cracked salt and pepper. 

Since I had about a quarter of the sauteed pea tendril mixture left over, I added this to the mushrooms at the last minute so they wouldn't go to waste. 

The end result was a moist pork chop filled with a flavorful goat cheese and pea tendril mixture.  The side of sauteed shiitake mushrooms and pea tendrils added a salty contrast to the pork chops.  This was a healthy and tasty meal that was perfect for a Sunday supper and a great first attempt at making stuffed pork chops.

What's your favorite way to cook pork chops?