Taste the Rainbow! Pork Tenderloin Medallions with Roasted Vegetables and Lemon-Garlic Rosemary Sauce

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Pork Tenderloin Medallions with Roasted Vegetables

Serves 4

Eating an array of colors ensures that you are optimizing the nutrients that will reduce your risk for cancer and boost your immune system. Will eating a Big Mac do that? It sure won’t. So look for variety and color the next time you eat out or plan your meals for the week! Or, why not just make this little recipe? It’s delicious.

Vegetables
3 parsnips, peeled, wide ends halved, cut into 0.5 x 1.5 inch pieces
3 carrots, peeled, wide ends halved, cut into 0.5 x 1.5 inch pieces
1 medium turnip, peeled, cut into 1/2 inch wedges
1 small sweet potato, peeled, halved, cut into 0.5 x 1.51.5 inch pieces
4 medium shallots, whole, peeled
2 spring onions, whole, trimmed
2 tablespoons olive oil
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons fresh rosemary leaves
1 head garlic, cloves separated but unpeeled
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Pork
1 lb pork tenderloin, trimmed of excess fat, cut into 1-inch pieces
salt
pepper
2 teaspoons olive oil, divided
2 cloves garlic (purple if available), finely chopped
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup chicken broth
1 tablespoon lemon juice and zest from 1 lemon
1 1/2 teaspoons chopped rosemary

Directions
Preheat the oven to 400°F.

In a large baking dish, add parsnips, carrots, turnips, sweet potatoes, shallots, and spring onions. Toss with oil and salt and roast for 25 minutes. Toss again, adding rosemary and garlic. Roast vegetables until cooked through and browned.

Meanwhile, sprinkle pork with salt and pepper. Heat 1 tsp oil in a large heavy pan over medium-high heat. Add the pork and cook until well-browned on each side (about 2-3 minutes) and your thermometer’s temperature registers at 145 degrees F. Remove from pan and keep warm.

Heat pan to medium and add 1 tsp oil. Add garlic and cook, stirring for about 30 seconds. Add wine and broth. Increase heat to high and cook, stirring up the brow bits on the bottom for about 5 minutes, until liquid reduces to a sauce.

Remove the pan from the heat. Season sauce with salt and pepper. Add lemon juice, zest, and rosemary.

When the vegetables are done, add to a serving dish with pork medallions. Adjust seasonings and drizzle with sauce. Serve with warmed whole grain bread.

Crisp-Braised Duck Legs With Aromatic Vegetables

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Adding duck to your dinner routine is a great way to add variety your meal planning. Duck is quite flavorful, its breast is low in fat, and utilizing it in your meal planning can break up the monotony of recipes that commonly call for chicken. Depending on your local butcher or grocery store, it is also not even much more expensive. We picked up these duck legs at our local market for $8/lb. While duck legs are a little higher in fat, you can trust me that it’s the good kind (I’m looking at you monounsaturated fat). One duck leg will only set you back 200 calories and 3g (14% DV) of saturated fat. Below is a fantastic recipe for braised duck legs based off of a recipe published by the New York Times, which we also combined with our own recipe for herbed peas.

Crisp-Braised Duck Legs With Aromatic Vegetables

Click HERE for NYT recipe
Serves 4

Braised Duck
4 small duck legs, trimmed of excess fat (about 2 lbs)
Salt and pepper to taste
2 large onions
1 pound carrots
6 celery stalks
2 cups chicken stock, preferably homemade

Herbed Peas
1 large leek or 2 small leeks, finely sliced
2 tbsp butter (or more if needed)
1 (10 oz) bag frozen peas, not defrosted
3-4 fresh mint sprigs (leaves and soft tips)
3-4 fresh sprigs of rosemary (leaves and soft tips)

Directions
Put duck legs, skin side down, in a skillet large enough to accommodate all ingredients comfortably; turn heat to medium. Heat oven to 400 degrees. Brown duck legs carefully and evenly, sprinkling them with salt and pepper as they cook. Meanwhile, peel and dice vegetables.

When legs are nicely browned, turn them over and sear for just a minute or two. Remove to a plate; remove all but enough fat to moisten vegetables. Add vegetables to skillet along with some salt and pepper. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until they begin to brown, 10 to 15 minutes. Return duck legs to pan, skin side up, and add stock; it should come about halfway up duck legs but should not cover them. Turn heat to high, bring to a boil, and transfer to oven.

Cook for 30 minutes, then lower heat to 350 degrees. Continue to cook, undisturbed, until duck is tender and liquid reduced, at least another half hour. The duck is done when a thin-bladed knife pierces the meat with little resistance.

Meanwhile, sauté the sliced leeks in butter over medium-low heat until soft, about 5-6 minutes. Add frozen peas and stir until defrosted. Add chopped mint, rosemary, and continue stirring for 3-5 minutes. Taste the peas to adjust for butter, season with salt and pepper if needed. When the duck is done, duck will hold nicely in a warm oven for another hour. Serve hot with herbed peas.

Wild Greens with Fried Eggs (+ My Cooking Journey)

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Ingredients
1 1⁄4 cups extra-virgin olive oil
10 scallions, minced
1 3⁄4 lb. mixed greens, such as nettles, lamb’s-quarter, spinach, Swiss chard, and arugula, washed and minced
1 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
1 cup chopped fresh mint leaves
1⁄2 cup chopped fennel fronds
6 cloves garlic, minced
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
6 eggs

Instructions
Heat ½ cup oil in a 5-qt. pot over medium-high heat. Add scallions and cook for 4 minutes. Add greens, parsley, mint, fennel, garlic, and ½ cup water; season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring, until greens are tender, 18–20 minutes. Remove from heat.

Heat ¾ cup oil in an 12″ skillet over medium-high heat. Working in two batches, crack eggs into skillet; cook, constantly spooning oil over yolks, until yolks are just set, about 2 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer eggs to a plate. Divide greens between plates and top each with a fried egg.

Diet “Assassinista’d” Baby

Wild Greens with Fried Eggs – A Case Study on the Ineptitude of Dieting

A low-fat diet would deter you from consuming this dish due to the fat content of the egg yolk and the use of olive oil. That’s a shame because if you followed this diet, you would be missing out on key nutrients provided by the higher fat ingredients (monounsaturated fat, vitamin E, vitamin A, and vitamin D) and denying yourself a perfectly healthy brunch. In truth, you wouldn’t be successful with your diet in the long run because a low-fat diet, like most diets, is not successful over time. What’s more, low-fat diets are less effective than higher fat diets to keep off weight. Click HERE for source. What does this mean for my readers who are on diets or have tried and failed? You should stop dieting, pack in nutrient dense foods, and control your portions with mindfulness. Capish?