We are in the most exciting part of the year. The spring solstice will begin in a few days and that means the freshest of produce will once again grace our palates. But of course, there are produce that are readily accessible throughout the year.

The good thing about such produce is that you can always get creative with them because they are always available. Take for example, your good 'ol bok choy. Most of the time the full grown ones are used in Asian stir fry, soup and stew recipes.

Like your favorite green leafy vegetables, bok choy is a "powerhouse vegetable". It is loaded with vitamins A, C, and K as well as calcium, magnesium, potassium, manganese, and iron. All these keep your immune system in its best state during the cold season and especially now that we are transitioning to spring. In this recipe, we will be using raw bok choy so you can have all its health-giving goodness.

To make a complete meal out of this super easy salad, we're going to pair it with baked cornflake-crusted tonkatsu.

The tonkatsu we will pair our salad with is quite unique. Compared to the usual ones, its batter will not contain eggs. Also, instead of using panko, we will use cornflakes for more crunch and texture. Lastly, we will not use oil when oven-baking the meat. Basically, in the end we will have an Asian meal like no other. So let's get started!

Ingredients

2 cups plain cornflakes
3 lean pork chop cuts
1/2 cup all purpose flour
Water
Sea salt and black pepper
3 pieces of wheat bread
2 tablespoons garlic butter
4 cups baby bok choy, preferably organic
1 cup greek yogurt
2 small tomatoes, sliced in thin wedges

Procedure

To make sure that our meat will have enough time to rest before we slice it, we will work on the tonkatsu first.

Pre-heat oven at 200°C. Remove the fat and skin from the meat cuts. Tenderize the meat. If you do not have a tenderizer, you can use your rolling pin or even the side of a chopping board instead.

Put the corn flakes inside a paper bag. Crush using a rolling pin. You can always use a food processor but if you want one less equipment to clean, definitely go manual. Once you are happy with the texture of your cereal, transfer them to a plate.

In a bowl, mix all purpose flour, sea salt and black pepper. Add water and mix until batter forms. Drench your tenderized meat with this flour batter. Drain the excess batter and then coat with crushed cornflakes.

Lay the tonkatsu on an oven-safe wire rack. Make sure that the wire rack is in the middle level of the oven. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes. After the first 15 minutes, flip the tonkatsu over.

While waiting for the tonkatsu to get done in the oven, start making your homemade croutons.

Apply garlic butter on both sides of your wheat bread. You can use plain butter and salt if you'd like. Using a bread knife, cut the bread into small cubes. Transfer the cubes to a nonstick baking pan - we love using the 11-inch Cleverona Essential Fry Pan for this. It spares us from greasing or from using a baking sheet.

Once your tonkatsu is done, transfer them to a plate. This time, let the pan with the bread cubes sit on the wire rack. Toast for 15 minutes or until it turns brown. Once done, remove from the oven, set aside to cool.

Finally, work on your baby bok choy salad. First, cut up the bok choy and place in a large bowl. Add greek yogurt and toss. Add croutons and tomato wedges. Slice a tonkatsu and place it on top of your salad. Serve and enjoy!

We are giving away 2 Cleverona Essential Fry Pans!

Aside from helping you make fantastic stir-fry dishes, the Cleverona Essential Nonstick Fry Pan, can also be used in preparing so many other types of dishes. Its detachable handle makes it even more versatile by allowing you to use the pan for dishes that are cooked in the oven.

If you want to get a FREE 11-inch Cleverona Essential Nonstick Fry Pan, check out the mechanics of our first ever Facebook Giveaway below: