Herb Crusted Pork Loin

The grocery store had pork loins on sale and I needed to cook something to go with a stuffing recipe for the Crazy Cooking Challenge (which will be posted later). Since we just had our normal pork recipe last week, I wanted to try something new. Normally we are conservative and don't want to waste money if we won't like it, but at nine dollars for the whole loin, I didn't think that was too bad if it didn't taste good.

So I found a recipe at Food Network (always a good go to source). I had never made a recipe by Ellie Kreiger but it had good ingredients, good reviews and who can pass up "healthy" recipes.

The original recipe has a sauce, but we didn't make it since I didn't have the ingredients and it wouldn't go with my side dish anyway.

Herb Crusted Pork Loin
Recipe by Ellie Kreiger

Ingredients
2 garlic cloves, minced (1 tablespoon)
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh sage leaves or 1 teaspoon dried sage
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh rosemary leaves or 1 teaspoon dried rosemary, crumbled
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh thyme leaves or 1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 (2 1/2-pound) center cut boneless pork loin, trimmed of all visible fat

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Mash the garlic and salt together with a fork until it forms a coarse paste. Transfer to a small bowl and stir in the oil, fresh herbs and freshly ground pepper. Rub the garlic-herb paste all over the pork. Transfer the pork to a roasting pan and roast for 1 1/4 hours or until the internal temperature reaches 155 degrees F on an instant-read thermometer. Transfer the roast to a carving board and let rest for 15 minutes. Carve the pork into slices and serve with the sauce.




This is probably going to feed up 5 times depending on how we use the leftovers. It was moist and flavorful. I'll definitely keep the recipe and do it again when we want something different.