Pork Tenderloin with Roasted Root Vegetables

Last Sunday I felt like trying something new. Our grocery store had pork tenderloin on sale, and since we don't cook them that often, I decided to pick one up and invited my parents for dinner.

I love marinated and grilled pork tenderloin, and I also love pork with mashed potatoes and my grandmother's secret family recipe for sauerkraut. But since Jon can't even take the smell of sauerkraut in the house (how can you not like it?? Especially the way my family makes it...), I looked for some other ideas. I liked this Paula Deen recipe for Pork Tenderloin with Root Vegetables. Surprisingly, it didn't call for any butter! How very un-Paula!

The root vegetables in this recipe were carrots, turnips, parsnips, and rutabaga. I have cooked with every one except rutabaga, the large, round vegetable in this picture -

Cooked, a rutabaga looked like mango, but had a very firm consistency. I couldn't really place the flavor though. A turnip tastes like a potato to me, and a parsnip tastes like a carrot, but a rutabaga has a flavor all its own. I would definitely use this vegetable again.

The Recipe...

Ingredients

• 1-1.5 lb pork tenderloin

The marinade:

• 1/4 c soy sauce (I used low sodium)
• 2 tbsp dry read wine
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp grated ginger
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon (omitted this)
• 2 green onions, green parts only, chopped

The veggies...

• 5 carrots
• 5 parsnips
• 2 rutabagas
• 5 turnips, roots only
• Olive oil
• House seasoning (This is a seasoning you can make and keep for up to 6 months - 1 c salt, 1/4 c black pepper, 1/4 c garlic powder. Instead of making the entire amount, I just seasoned my veggies with the seasoning ingredients of salt, pepper, and garlic powder.)

Directions

• Combine marinade ingredients in a measuring cup and whisk to combine. Pour over pork tenderloin in a plastic bag, and marinate overnight.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees (I ended up turning the oven to 375 halfway through, and then 400 to finish the veggies after the pork was done).
• Bake the pork for 45 minutes, or until temperature reads 145 degrees (I like my pork cooked a touch more, so we let it go to 160 - perfect). Allow meat to rest 10 minutes before slicing. I transferred it to a large dish and surrounded the pork with the roasted vegetables. (I normally sear a tenderloin before roasting it, but didn't this time)
• Peel and cut the vegetables into bite-sized chunks. Toss with olive oil and the seasoning, and roast alongside the pork (in a separate dish), until tender. The directions say to check them at 25 minutes, and then every 10 minutes thereafter, but doesn't give the total cooking time. Our veggies took close to an hour.

Jon and I both thought the marinade would make the meat too sweet, but it didn't. It had the perfect balance of sweet and savory, and paired perfectly with the veggies. The only thing I added was a green salad and a nice loaf of crusty bread. Perfect Sunday dinner!