Honey and Spice Roasted Pork Tenderloin

Today was The Day – or as it were – Bee Day. After two years of beekeeping, gathering the honey was almost over too quickly, but it’s definitely worthy of a celebration! The harvest was much easier than anticipated thanks to a word of advice from good friend Sylvia from Green Door Gourmet, who shared the tip that bees hate the scent of vanilla. She is a genius! After dousing my husband with so much of the stuff he smelled like Grandma’s cookies no bee thought he was worthy of any attention. (Hint: celebrating is way more fun if the process doesn’t require Ibuprofen, Benadryl, or an Epi-pen.)

Cooking with honey has always been a family tradition. My mom still makes a wonderful honey whole wheat bread from a recipe she discovered back in the early 70’s when whole wheat was first in vogue – at least here in the South. We all know that honey is perfect to incorporate into salad dressings, glazes, and marinades, it’s lovely drizzled on cheese, on toast, or served with fruit. The honey celebration dinner tonight won’t quite yet feature honey from home, but still specialhoney shared from a friend’s harvest.

On the menu is a favorite meal for family weeknights or entertaining friends that’s simple to prepare and everyone just loves it – Honey and Spice Roasted Pork Tenderloin. This one is a favorite because it is delicious, dependable, and cooks all by itself while you enjoy a glass of something cool and spend time with friends and family. A bit of clever prepping like a salad toss and setting the table means almost zero working time while entertaining. Here is the plan – cover the pork with spice mixture, combine glaze ingredients, cut up some carrots and the work is done. Thirty minutes before your crowd is hungry preheat the oven.

Brown the pork a couple of minutes on each side in an oven proof skillet. Brush with a bit of glaze and add carrots. Put the skillet in the oven and leave it alone for fifteen minutes. Brush on a bit more glaze and give it another five to ten minutes, depending on your doneness preference. This isn’t really part of the recipe and didn’t make it to the photo gallery, but my secret for a super simple side is to put the pork and carrots on a cutting board to rest and dump a bag of spinach in the skillet to barely wilt in the leftover glaze. You just can’t make a dinner any easier. Well, except that nothing in the world makes a better dessert than really good vanilla ice cream drizzled with really good honey. There – dinner is done. Enjoy!

Honey and Spice Roasted Pork Tenderloin

Ingredients

Spice Mix:

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp chili powder

1 tsp salt

Marinade:

½ cup honey

½ cup balsamic vinegar

1 Tbsp siracha sauce (or hot sauce – maybe not quite as much)

1 Tbsp grate ginger (or the kind in the tube from produce section in grocery)

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 ½ – 2 lb pork tenderloin

1 Tbsp olive oil

5 large carrots, peeled and cut in large chunks (or bagged pre-cut)

(See above for spinach trick – requires one bag spinach)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine ingredients for marinade. (Can do ahead of time.)

Combine spice mixture and rub over pork. (Can do ahead of time and refrigerate.)

Heat an oven proof skillet with olive oil over high heat.

Brown pork on all sides – about 2 minutes a side.

Add carrots to the same skillet and spoon about 1/3 of glaze mixture over the pork – spooning a little over carrots.

Bake for 15 minutes, remove skillet from oven and spoon about ½ of remaining glaze over the pork.

Bake another 5 to 10 minutes (Just check for doneness by slicing into it – a little pink is okay – it will continue to cook.)

Remove pork and carrots to cutting board and cover with last bit of glaze.

If desired – wilt spinach in hot skillet.

Slice pork and serve with carrots.