My small herb garden is surprisingly thriving this year, despite the fact that I haven’t spent much time tending to it. The sage has become a small bush full of beautiful purple flowers and I have been using those bright green, tender, sage leaves in every way possible in my cooking lately. Today’s recipe for grilled pork tenderloin with sage and garlic is a good way to incorporate fresh herbs in your cooking and a delicious recipe to make for Father’s Day this Sunday!
Cooking with pork tenderloin
This is a quick and easy recipe which produces juicy and succulent pork with really minimal effort. Pork tenderloin is a lean protein, much like chicken breast. For this reason, and unless it is cooked properly, the result can be dry and disappointing. In this recipe a quick treatment of the tenderloin beforehand, in the form of a very flavorful dry rub, imparts great flavor to the pork and does not require long hours sitting while it seasons.
The ingredients
To make this grilled pork tenderloin with sage and garlic, you will need two medium pork tenderloins, fresh sage, garlic, olive oil, butter and seasoning. It will take about 10 minutes of prep work, an hour of resting time and some time to grill them. A delicious melted butter, sage, and garlic sauce poured over the cooked tenderloins before serving completely transforms this lean cut of meat!
What to serve with it
While the tenderloin was moved from direct to indirect heat–and to take advantage of the direct heat–I put a bunch of vegetables that I had previously simply tossed with extra virgin olive oil, oregano, salt and pepper in a grilling basket and put it over the fire. This time I chose peppers, broccoli, mushrooms and shallots. Any hardy vegetables you might have on hand will do! The time that it took to grill these vegetables pretty well matched up with the time that the pork tenderloin needed to finish cooking over indirect heat.
You can also serve this meal with a simple green salad with a bright vinaigrette, an orzo summer salad, a Greek peasant salad, or, a Greek panzanella salad.
For a more traditional BBQ fare, great choices include this healthy coleslaw salad and a mayo-free potato salad
☙ Print or Save the recipe ❧
- ⅓ cup fresh sage, minced
- 1½ teaspoons brown sugar
- 1½ teaspoons sea salt
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 2 pork tenderloins, about ¾ to 1-lb each.
- 6 tablespoons butter, salted
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- ¼ cup packed fresh sage leaves, whole
- 1 garlic clove, sliced
- -- Olive-oil or vegetable-oil for the grill
- Stir together the first five ingredients and massage them into the tenderloins. Let the tenderloins sit, covered, at room temperature for one hour (it is important to let them sit at room temperature; if you refrigerate the tenderloins, increase the time that you let them sit).
- In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, cook the butter, olive oil, ¼ cup fresh sage leaves, and garlic for about 10 minutes. Do not let the sage leaves or the garlic burn! Remove from heat and let sit for 10 minutes. Keep warm while you grill the tenderloins.
- Generously oil your grill grates. Grill the tenderloins over direct, medium-high heat (400° F to 450° F), uncovered, for 6 - 8 minutes per side, turning occasionally. Then, move the tenderloins to the cooler side of grill to continue grilling over indirect, medium-high heat, covered, for and additional 10 - 12 minutes until the tenderloins reach an internal temperature of 145°. Remove from the grill, tent with foil, and let the pork rest for 10 minutes before carving.
- Cut the tenderloins into thin slices, pour over the sage and garlic butter and serve.
The recipe is adapted from a 2006 publication “Smoke & Spice; The Big Book of Outdoor Cooking & Entertaining”, by Jamison, Cheryl Alters and Bill.
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