To get Maria Makes updates delivered to your inbox, subscribe via email here.
I have a few money-saving strategies when it comes to cooking meals for my husband and myself. One of these strategies is pretty simple and is enabled by the huge freezer in our basement! When I see a killer sale on any kind of protein, I buy it! For instance, a few weeks ago my grocery store had bone-in chicken thighs and drumsticks for buy one get one free! I of course bought two packs of each. During another sale, they had center cut pork loins for buy one get one free, so even though we obviously weren't going to eat 6 lbs of pork at once, I bought them and froze them! They worked out to be something crazy like $1.00 a pound -- SCORE.
One of those bad boys turned into this Onion and Garlic Roasted Pork Loin! I got inspiration from this Food.com recipe, but with a few tweaks to make it my own!
Garlic & Onion Roasted Pork Loin
[Whole30 - Paleo - Gluten Free - Grain Free - Dairy Free]
Ingredients:
2.5 - 3 lb center cut pork loin
1 large onion, thinly sliced
4 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
1.5 Tbsp italian seasoning
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 tsp black pepper
4-6 carrots, peeled and quartered
2-3 russet potatoes, peeled and quartered
2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
Optional for Gravy: 1-2 Tbsp arrowroot flour (or 2 Tbsp coconut flour)
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
- Make 5-6 cuts into the pork loin. Stuff the sliced onion (about half) and garlic into each cut.
- Place pork roast in an oven-proof dutch oven and sprinkle with italian seasoning, salt, red pepper flakes, and black pepper.
- Arrange carrots and potatoes around the roast, and drizzle everything with balsamic vinegar.
TIP: Feel free to add more carrots and potatoes if you have room! - Cover and bake for 1-2 hours, or until internal temperature of pork reaches 145 degrees.
- If you want to make a quick gravy -- remove the potatoes and carrots to a bowl, remove pork to cutting board to rest (tenting with foil).
- Heat dutch oven over medium heat on the stove and bring the pan drippings to a simmer.
- In a small bowl, combine 2 Tbsp arrowroot starch with a bit of cold water to make a slurry.
TIP: If you use coconut flour instead, no need to make a slurry -- just sprinkle it into the pan and whisk. However, arrowroot starch is preferred (coconut flour didn't thicken it well and was a bit gritty). - Whisk the slurry into the pan juices -- it should thicken into gravy almost immediately.
TIP: You will want to use all of this gravy the night you make it -- arrowroot thickened gravies tend to thin out once chilled and reheated. - Slice pork and serve along with the roasted carrots and potatoes. Also pairs well with mashed cauliflower!