Juicy inside and crispy outside, Grilled Mini Tomatoes Wrapped in Pork is a delicious dish that is perfect as a side dish or a finger food. The sweet and sour juice from the grilled tomato goes so well with the thinly sliced pork belly strips. Watch the video.
Don't forget to see the section 'MEAL IDEAS' below the recipe card! It gives you a list of dishes that I have already posted and this recipe that can make up a complete meal. I hope it is of help to you.
- 15 mini Roma tomatoes (note 1)
- 15 strips of thinly sliced pork belly (note 2)
- Salt and pepper
- 5 teppō gushi (note 3)
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Place a pork belly strip vertically on a cutting board and place a tomato on the edge of the pork strip closest to you, placing the long ends of the tomato horizontally.
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Wrap the tomato with the pork belly strip by rolling the tomato with the pork. Repeat for the remaining 14 tomatoes.
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Hold a wrapped tomato with the end of the pork strip facing up. Put a teppō gushi through the wrapped tomato from the bottom so that the end of the pork belly strip is closer to the tip of the skewer.
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Put the second wrapped tomato through the skewer, ensuring that the skewer goes through close to the end of the pork belly strip.
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Hold the third wrapped tomato with the end of the pork belly strip facing down, then put the skewer through so that the end of the pork belly strip is facing towards the 2nd wrapped tomato.
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Repeat steps 3,4, and 5 for the remaining tomatoes. You will have 5 skewers each with 3 wrapped tomatoes.
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Sprinkle a generous amount of salt and pepper over both sides of the tomato skewers.
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Wrap the handle of the teppō gushi with a small piece of aluminium foil. This prevents the bamboo handles from burning.
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Place the skewers on a grilling rack lined with aluminium foil and grill for 5 minutes.
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Turn the skewers over and grill for further 5 minutes.
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Remove the aluminium foil from the skewer and serve immediately.
1. Oval-shaped mini tomatoes such as Roma tomatoes and grape tomatoes are best suited for today’s dish as they are easier to wrap with a pork belly strip. They also grill faster than round cherry tomatoes.
My Roma tomatoes were about 3.5cm/1⅜” long, 2.5cm/1” wide.
2. It is best to use shabu-shabu slices, i.e., 1-1.5mm/1⁄32-1⁄16" thick or 2mm/3⁄32" thick thinly sliced pork belly. You will find that any thicker pork belly strips are a bit chewy when grilled.
My pork belly was about 15cm/6" long and 3.5-4cm/1⅜-1½" wide. It weighed 115g/4.1oz in total. It doesn't matter if the length and/or total weight of your pork belly strips varies.
3. I used teppō gushi so that the round tomato wouldn't rotate around the skewer. If you only have standard thin round skewers, you may want to put two skewers through to prevent the tomatoes from rotating.
4. Nutrition per skewer.
serving: 47g calories: 124kcal fat: 12g (18%) saturated fat: 4.5g (23%) trans fat: 0.0g polyunsaturated fat: 1.3g monounsaturated fat: 5.7g cholesterol: 17mg (6%) sodium: 61mg (3%) potassium: 99mg (3%) carbohydrates: 1g (0%) dietary fibre: 0.3g (1%) sugar: 0.6g protein: 2.4g vitamin a: 4% vitamin c: 5.5% calcium: 0.3% iron: 1.1%