Recipe: $13.54 | Per Serving: $3.39 | Yield: 4
Sheet pan meals are a super easy way to get a simple but flavorful meal on the table with very limited hands-on time. This easy pork sheet pan recipe is completed with beautiful purple sweet potatoes and roasted cauliflower and carrots.
My clients are LOVING these easy sheet pan meals, and I know you will too!
Let’s talk pork! Who likes it? Hopefully if you’re here, that means you like it. I get my pork tenderloin from Moink (affiliate link) 100% of the time. I usually get a pack of two tenderloins that are 1-1.5 pounds.
Lots of people are afraid of pork, but I can’t stress this enough: the quality of the food is more important than whether it is animal-based or plant-based. (Not to mention – it’s important to consider personal preference!)
The quality and amounts and variety of foods are all important things. There are healthy and unhealthy parts of literally every single food that exists. We are meant to be exposed to nutrients and anti-nutrients and small amounts of toxins and stressors, alongside large amounts of antioxidants and plants. That being said, if you don’t want to eat pork, do not eat pork! If you think pork bothers you or makes you sick – you have ever right to never eat it!
BUT high quality pork (heritage, pasture-raised, humane) in normal, moderate amounts, is no scarier than ‘healthy’ foods like spinach or beans or avocado.
So…Where to Buy Quality Meat?
- First, check your local farms. Ask what they feed their animals – in the summer and the winter. Get a feel for their practices. Are they raising happy animals who get to roam around and eat real food? Or are the animals in a tight, confined environment eating soy, corn, and grains? (Animals like cows and pigs are not meant to eat soy or corn.)
- Check pastured and grass-fed local farms on Eat Wild. You’ll be surprised what you find! Maybe there’s an awesome farm near you that offers a CSA or has a farm store.
- This is not a sponsored post, but I do recommend Moink (affiliate link) because I have communicated with them numerous times about the quality of the meat they source from small family farms. Plus, it is super convenient to have a meat box delivered to your house – especially in a pandemic!
- Not impressed with my favorite online meat delivery? That’s okay! Check out this great post from my friend and colleague Abra Pappa all about her favorite online sources for organic, grass-fed, pastured, wild, sustainable animal products.
Tips for Sheet Pan Dinners:
Match the cooking time of your proteins with the cooking time of your vegetables. You’ll often see sheet pan dinners with pork, chicken thighs, or other fattier cuts of meat because they have a slightly longer cooking time and are less likely to dry out than a leaner protein like chicken breasts.
Pairing Proteins with Vegetables for Sheet Pan Dinners:
- Hearty vegetables like carrots, parsnips, sweet potatoes, cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage work well with slower cooking higher fat proteins like chicken thighs, pork tenderloin, and sausage.
- Fast-cooking vegetables with a high water content, like zucchini, summer squash, asparagus, grape tomatoes, work best with fast-cook proteins like chicken breasts, salmon, white fish, and wild cod.
- And then, there are some in-between vegetables that work well for either, such as onions, mushrooms, bell peppers, and brussels sprouts (depending on how they’re cut).
Tips for making this recipe cheaper: buy pork tenderloin on sale or in bulk, or replace with chicken thighs. You can also bulk this up with grains on the side.
Paleo: Yes! And AIP.
Vegetarian: No – but you can make sheet pan meals with chickpeas!
PIN THIS RECIPE FOR LATER!
Sheet Pan Pork Tenderloin with Cauliflower, Carrots, and Purple Potatoes (AIP)
Description
This easy sheet pan supper helps you get a delicious dinner on the table fast!
Ingredients
For the Sauce:
- 3 Tablespoons olive oil
- 2 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar (or other vinegar)
- 1 Tablespoon honey
- 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
- 1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- optional (not AIP): 1 tablespoon whole grain mustard in sauce or at serving time
Pork + Veggies:
- 1.25 pounds pork tenderloin
- 1 large purple sweet potato (1 lb)
- 1 pound cauliflower florets
- 1/2 pound carrots
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425F.
- Whisk the sauce ingredients together in a large bowl or jar.
- Break the cauliflower into bite-sized florets. Roll cut the carrots and chop the sweet potato into equal-sized pieces. Spread out on lined sheet pan and drizzle with 1/3 of the sauce, tossing to coat.
- Use the remaining sauce to coat the pork tenderloin. Place tenderloin atop the vegetables.
- Drizzle any remaining sauce over the entire sheet of vegetables and pork.
- Roast for about 25-30 minutes.
- Remove from oven. Place pork on a sheet pan and let rest about 5-10 minutes before slicing and serving. I like to turn the oven off and put the vegetables back in to stay warm while the pork tenderloin rests.
- Feel free to drizzle with more olive oil to serve. Serve with lemon and optionally, some horseradish!
Notes
Optional: if you’re not on AIP, I love adding whole grain mustard while serving.
