This keto pork tenderloin is everything you need for a busy weeknight. One pan… ✔, sides… ✔, flavorful… ✔✔✔! This recipe really is the heart and soul of what Cast Iron Keto is all about, it’s packed with healthy fats from the olive oil, it’s got a hearty serving of low carb veggies, it’s so incredibly simple absolutely anyone can make it, and the best part is there is almost no mess to clean up after dinner.
Does anybody else remember the “Pork. The other white meat” commercials, or the “Beef, it’s what’s for dinner” campaign narrated by Sam Elliot? They never have to advertise for chicken. In my experience whenever I’m planning a menu for the week, I always have plenty of chicken recipes, a few beef, but pork recipes are kind of few and far between (except for barbecue). I don’t know if anybody else feels this way, but I’m always on the lookout for a good pork recipe that way I have a variety of protein sources and this recipe has become a weekly staple.
If you are not a big fan of garlic you may want to look elsewhere because this recipe uses 6 cloves of garlicky goodness. You’ll be able to have a delicious dinner and ward off vampires both, all with a single recipe. Garlic boasts a ton of health benefits and can be used to prevent certain cancers as well as dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, or as a treatment for the cold and flu, or even used to increase the athletic performance of Olympians in Ancient Greece.
To read more on the amazing health benefits of garlic check out the links below:
Healthline – 11 Proven Health Benefits of Garlic
Organic Facts – 13 Interesting Benefits of Garlic
Consumer Reports – The Health Benefits of Garlic
Keto Pork Tenderloin Skillet Dinner
A delicious and complete meal perfect for busy weeknights
Prep time:
Cook time:
Makes: 4 servings
Ingredients:
- 1 ½ – 2 lbs pork tenderloin
- 4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- ½ teaspoon italian herbs
- 6 cloves garlic
- 1 medium onion
- 1 head broccoli
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 400℉. Using a fork poke holes all over the pork tenderloin and stuff them with minced garlic. Then season the outside of the tenderloin with 1 tablespoon olive oil, salt, pepper, and herbs.
- Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium high heat on the stove top and brown the tenderloin on all sides, about 6 minutes total.
- Add in the broccoli and onions and drizzle with 2 tablespoon of olive oil.
- Bake for 15-20, until the pork has reached an internal temperature of 150℉
- Allow the tenderloin to rest after taking it out of the oven for 10 minutes before serving.
**Info listed is per serving and an estimate. We use PaleoTrack.com to calculate macronutrient content.
Is this cooked in a cast iron pan and if so, what size pan?
Everything on the website is cooked in cast iron, for this particular recipe I used a 12 inch skillet.
How the heck do I stuff tiny little minces of garlic into the hole that a fork makes ??
You just kind of mash it in with the fork or your hands. The garlic doesn’t all have to be inside the pork you just want some of it to get in there and the rest will just stick to the outside.
Will the pork be completely done? I don’t like meat half done doesn’t settle good on tummy for me. Thank you, Sarah
It will be medium well. If you’d like it well done I would start by increasing the cook time by an additional 5 minutes or so.
This looks like a good recipe, but the directions are bad. You list whole cloves of garlic, 1 head of broccoli and 1 onion in ingredient list. No where do you say what to do with these ingredients, according to recipe you say put minced garlic in holes in pork, so we have that (maybe whole garlic cloves in slivers would be better, just an idea), but I’m sure we don’t put a whole head of broccoli and a whole onion in dish. We can tell by picture it’s broccoli florets and the onion is quartered or sliced, but this should be explained in the recipe that’s what they are for.
With all of the garlic and onions how is this Keto? Garlic is very high in sugars
this took 1 hour in the oven. It was raw after the first 20 min. rest for 10. I cooked it another 20 min. still somewhat red. then baked it another 20 min.to get done
Hi Rita, that’s strange. I would suggest grabbing an oven thermometer and checking to see if your oven is heating evenly.
To add to what others have said, adding the herbs and pepper before searing it is going to make the pepper go rancid and will most definitely scorch the herbs.