Roasted Pork Tenderloin with Fresh Plum Sauce

Plan Z Phase: This is a Z2 (ZReduction) recipe.

My husband loved this, and I was surprised. Delightfully surprised! This is easy to make for a weekday meal, but you could also serve this to guests, and no one would guess this is diet food.

Servings: Serves 2. Can easily be doubled or even tripled for a dinner party.

Ingredients:

  • 1 pork tenderloin (they all run at 1lb). Get a plain one. Not flavored.
  • sea salt and pepper to taste
  • olive oil spray
  • 1 cup of sliced red onion
  • 1 cup of other onion. It can be yellow or white onion; even shallots. I used white because that’s what I had in my fridge.
  • 3 fresh thyme sprigs (or to taste). Just run your fingers along the spines to remove the leaves. All you want are the leaves. This is about 1 tsp of thyme.
  • 3 plums (I used black but red works too). Cut them into quarters and remove the pits. Don’t take off the skin.
  • ½ cup of water
  • 1 Tbl of balsamic vinegar (or red can work)

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. While that’s happening you can sear your meat. Heat an ovenproof pan (I use cast iron). Spray your pork tenderloin on all sides with a coating of olive oil. Dust with sea salt and pepper. Put it in the pan and cook for 3 – 4 minutes on one side to sear it and get a brown crust. Transfer the tenderloin to a plate for the time being.

Spray the skillet again (don’t clean it out). Add the onions and a light grating of sea salt. Sauté on medium until the onions loosen up. This will take 5 – 8 minutes.

Stir in the thyme. Add the pork tenderloin and position the plum pieces around the pork.

Now you are ready to roast. Put it in the oven for about 20 minutes. Insert a meat thermometer into the roast to see if it’s done. You want the temperature to be about 160 degrees for medium. Don’t go for rare. Anything under 135 degrees can give you food poisoning! Take the pan out of the oven. Remove the pork tenderloin and place it on a cutting board. Let it rest for 3 – 5 minutes so the juices go back into the meat. Slice into thin pieces. One tenderloin serves two people, so if you and your dinner partner are eating together, you can each eat half of the roast.

While the pork is sitting, add the balsamic vinegar and water to the pan. Heat and stir to incorporate. You want it to bubble for a few minutes, so it starts to thicken. You’ll have lumps of plums. That’s great.

If you want it to look restaurant fancy, you’ll put sauce in the middle of the plate and arrange slices of the pork on top. Any way you serve it works.

For this meal you’ll skip your fruit dessert. You’ve already eaten it! You can have more veggies, though, to round out your one cup. I roasted brussels sprouts for the occasion, and they were a great combo.

Enjoy!

Cheers,