Pork loin is a great cut to choose while doing Paleo because it is considered extra lean but still retains that great pork flavor. It’s relatively easy to work with, and the following recipes all do a good job of making it taste great with complementary ingredients. One of the most popular ways to cook up a pork loin is to make a roll out of it. We’ve included plenty of pork roulades, the fancy French word for roll, as well as some interesting dishes that you wouldn’t expect to be made from pork loin. Enjoy!
1. Pork Roulade
This pork roll requires a little extra work, but it’s worth it for the way it tastes. The included recipe is pretty detailed, with pictures of most steps and even a diagram showing you how to cut the loin so that you can roll up the inner ingredients. The way a pork roulade presents itself, and the way the stuffed ingredients infuse it with flavor, you’ll be glad you decided to take the time to make it. This is rolled up with candied butternut squash and a mango chutney, so there are plenty of flavors that go well with pork and give it a sweet taste.
Photo: Life Made Full
2. Crispy Honey Pork Tenderloin
Even though this pork tenderloin comes out looking amazing, they say it only takes 5 minutes to get it ready to go into the oven. When it comes out it has a nice crispy honey coating to it, and you get that flavor in each bite. Of course the honey comes from raw honey, preferably organic, and the crispiness also comes from the honey, which gives it a sort of glaze. Only a bit of garlic powder and salt are used in addition to the honey, which shows that it doesn’t take much to spruce up a pork loin and make it taste better than it would otherwise.
3. Savory Pan Fried Pork Tenderloin
It’s nice to have a pork tenderloin recipe that doesn’t use the oven. Here you’re frying it in a pan so that it gets nice and brown on the outside, while leaving the inside fully cooked but just a little pink in the very center. The result of cooking this leaves you with a nice sauce to serve up along with the loin so that it is juicy as well as tender. It’s a pretty easy recipe to follow, just be sure to serve it alongside a vegetable dish. The Paleo way requires a roughly even mix of vegetables and meat, hence the term hunting and gathering.
4. Coffee-Rubbed Pork Tenderloin
If you love your coffee you’re sure to love this coffee-rubbed tenderloin, as it has the taste of coffee throughout. They include the directions to make a blueberry balsamic reduction, which goes great with the pork loin and the taste of coffee. As you’ll see below, most fruit pairs well with pork because it gives it a sweetness that counteracts the savory flavor. Perhaps what you’ll love most about this is just how easy it is to make, essentially just rubbing the loin with ground coffee beans, searing it in a pan, and then letting the oven take over.
5. Slow Cooker Chili Verde
Your pork loin doesn’t always have to come out looking like a pork loin, and here they’ve used it as the main ingredient to a chili verde. The best part is that it’s all done in the slow cooker, so you set it and walk away and come back in 6 hours and it’s ready. The tenderloin gives the chili the meaty flavor you’d expect, but without the fat, since it’s a very lean cut of meat. This helps the chili avoid turning out oily or too fatty tasting. The other ingredients all work well here and are all Paleo approved.
6. Paleo Roasted Stuffed Pork Tenderloin
This roasted tenderloin is sure to be a crowd pleaser, and your friends and family don’t even need to know that it’s a Paleo recipe. Nothing about this hints at it being “diet food” and that’s one thing you’ve got to love about Paleo, you get to eat real food. The stuffing includes bacon and a wide assortment of seasonings and spices, as well as fresh spinach, so you’ll be getting extra vitamins and minerals built right into your pork. There’s also plenty of chopped garlic, and when combined with the other herbs and spices this is far from being short on flavor.
Photo: VA Hunter Gatherers
7. Greek Pork Loin Roulade
This is one pork roll you’ll want to make again, and it is inspired by Greek cuisine. The main ingredient you’ll notice here is kalamata olives, which will give it the distinct flavor and make it seem like you’re having a Greek salad. There’s also spinach on the inside, so it contains a vegetable, but you’ll still want to eat this with a side of vegetables to make it a complete meal. The last of the main ingredients is Greek oregano, which gives it another Greek aspect, and adds another big flavor burst to the pork loin.
8. Perfect Pork Tenderloin
When you label something as perfect, you better be able to back it up. Paul has a way of doing just that and this pork tenderloin recipe is one that you’ll want to commit to memory. What’s great about this is that it qualifies as a 30 minute meal, and you’ll be eating it in no time. It’s served up with squash and avocado, so this is truly a complete meal, filled with a meat, a vegetable, and a source of healthy fats, not to mention fiber. The overall combination is a good once, because you’re also getting three textures, and they all work nicely together.
9. Prosciutto-Wrapped Dry-Rubbed Pork Tenderloin
Wrapping up a tenderloin in proscuitto is enough to give it a lot of extra flavor, but when you’re dry-rubbing it before it gets wrapped, you’re making a statement. This is a tenderloin that is getting the full treatment, but still doesn’t take very long to get it oven-ready. The dry rub is made from a nice selection of seasonings, all tailored to the taste of pork. Take their serving suggestion and plate this up with a side of mashed cauliflower instead of mashed potatoes, and a side of veggies too, in this case they made bok choy.
10. Mexican Pork and Pepper Stew
This is an amazing stew to use your pork loin on, and you’ll be consistently blown away as you eat it. If you’ve been craving Mexican food you need to find an outlet that doesn’t use any tortillas, rice, beans, or corn. That can be hard to do, but in this stew they’ve found a way to do it. The fact that you’re using a nice lean protein source like pork loin just makes it even better. They’ve topped this off with an avocado citrus cream that doesn’t use any cream at all, but manages to push this into the flavor stratosphere.
11. Grilled Pork Loin with Herbs and Mustard
This pork loin looks like something you’d see in a recipe book, and is definitely Paleo friendly. That’s because they’ve kept things simple with this, and you aren’t using a ton of ingredients. Mustard, rosemary, and thyme are your basic essentials here, and these are time-tested pork accents that you can rely on to get the job done. They also include instructions for how to make a nice vegetable side for this so you can have a complete meal all from one page. On Paleo you’ll want to make sure you always pair your meat with a vegetable to help with digestion and keep it healthy.
Photo: Stuff I Make My Husband
12. Herbed Pork Tenderloin with Roasted Pumpkin Applesauce
Pork chops and applesauce go together great, so why not transfer that knowledge to pork loin. This is pretty much an upgraded version of that classic standby, and you’re getting a nice herbed pork tenderloin with a creative applesauce made with roasted pumpkins. You’re getting a meat, veggie, and fruit with this meal, and it could end up on your weekly dinner menu. They’ve served it up with a side salad to help balance the portions and as shown it’s a complete Paleo meal.
13. Jagerschnitzel
On most diet plans you’d have to avoid anything ending in schnitzel because that means it’s fried. On Paleo you can have it as long as it is breaded in a grain-free flour and fried up in a Paleo friendly oil. Here they’ve coated in in potato starch and arrowroot flour and fried it up in lard or coconut oil, whichever you have on hand. That gives it the green light for Paleo eaters, and it’s a wonderful way of eating your pork loin. Like any good Paleo recipe they’re showing you how to pair this, and they’ve chosen mashed cauliflower and an apt blaukraut, a braised red cabbage dish (recipe provided).
14. Dry-Rubbed Pork Tenderloin
Dry-rubbing your pork tenderloin is one surefire way to improve its taste. Which seasonings you use to kick the flavor up a notch is essential, and this mix is one that works every time. The key is that they’re using spices that have been shown time and again to work well with pork loin, but they’ve also added some heat in the form of red pepper flakes. This adds just the right amount of spiciness to wake up your taste buds and make them take notice.
15. Stuffed Pork Tenderloin
When she says this pork tenderloin is stuffed, she means stuffed to the gills. Unlike other stuffed loins and pork rolls with just a little bit of stuffing, this one goes all out and really jams it in there. The stuffing consists of spinach, cashews, onions, and fresh rosemary, one herb that is notorious for making pork taste great. The whole lot gets blended up until it forms a paste, so you won’t have to worry about crunching up cashews when you’re trying to eat your pork. Overall a fantastic offering that deserves a spot on our list.
16. Pork Loin with Peach Puree
For our next three pork loins we wanted to showcase just how well a little fruit goes with pork. In this case they’re topping the pork loin with a peach puree made from peaches and oranges. Those two fruits go together well, and you’ll be getting the citrusy acidity of the orange mixed with the sweet and smooth taste of the peaches. Together they’ll make a sweet and tart puree that dovetails nicely with the taste of the pork loin. Pork doesn’t have an overpowering taste to it, so with a puree like this you’re getting a balanced flavor on your palate.
Photo: Cavegirl Cuisine
17. Pork Tenderloin with Sweet Cherry Sauce
The next recipe in our trio of pork loins and fruit helpers is a tenderloin that has a sweet cherry sauce slathered on top of it. To get that sweet taste without using sugar they are using sweet cherries instead of tart, and they have added honey to them to bring out their natural sweetness. The pork loin itself goes pretty much untreated, so she’s relying on the sauce to provide most of the flavor, which it does. Cherries and pork is something we hadn’t seen before finding this recipe, but definitely works. It might not overthrow applesauce as the perfect companion to pork, but it’s worth checking out.
18. Yummy Apple Pork TENDERloin
The last in our series of pork loins and fruit is a recipe that uses the time honored tradition of pork and apples. This time they’re not using an apple sauce, but rather topping the pork with bits of apple. This means that with every bite you’ll get the combination of pork and apple without the need for a separate side of applesauce. It’s a way or reinventing pork chops and applesauce, and one that has a better visual appeal. As we’ve seen, fruit goes well with pork, so you can feel free to experiment with different fruit toppings and see which ones you like best.
19. Pork Loin Baked with Green Onions, Jalapeno, and Ginger
This pork loin offering is going to send your taste buds on quite the adventure. It’s not often you see such powerful tastes used on a pork loin, but if you like your pork spicy this is the way to go. The jalapeno will see it to that this is a spicy dish, while the ginger comes along and adds its distinct flavor to it. The green onion is just along for the ride, and you’ll want to leave out the soy sauce to make this Paleo. Overall, this recipe packs quite a punch and you’ll crave it again soon whenever you’re in the mood for a spicy meat dish.
20. Dijon Pork Tenderloin
Dijon flavor goes great with pork, and with this tenderloin you’ll be getting a nice coating of it so it encompasses each bite. But the mustard isn’t all that’s being used to make this taste as good as it does. There is a nice blend of seasonings to make sure that it’s not just one dimensional. She serving this up with a mashed cauliflower side, which is a popular way to go. We’ve seen several Paleo chefs use mashed cauliflower to finish off their tenderloins. Perhaps because mashed potatoes go so well with pork loin, or perhaps because it adds additional flavor without stealing the spotlight.
Photo: Preppy Paleo
21. Bacon-Wrapped Maple Pork
This pork loin gets wrapped in a thick slice of bacon, and the whole thing has a glaze from maple syrup, so you get the delicious maple flavor throughout. Maple goes so well with bacon, that the pork loin basically serves as a nice foundation for it. They are using nitrate-free bacon, an important consideration when you are choosing your Paleo-friendly bacon. The use of allspice and chili powder means you’ll be having quite the sweet and spicy meal, and we may have saved the best for last on our list of Paleo pork loins with this one.
