Center Cut Pork Loin Roast and Vegetables

We have a store called Sprouts Farmer's Market near our house, previously called Henry's. It's kind of like Whole Foods in that it has a great produce section, lots of bulk pantry items, a glorious coffee section and really expensive packaged goods--but it's cheaper than Whole Foods.

I love Henry's except shopping there goes against one of my strongest arguments for not going to Trader Joe's--you can't always get everything you need for a recipe there or do all your shopping. But Henry's aka Sprouts is a good place to go sometimes and especially when you didn't go to the actual Farmer's Market.

So anyway, I was shopping at Sprouts this weekend and I noticed there was a sale on Center Cut Pork Loin Roasts. The other great thing was that the roasts were small--2 1/2 to 3 pounds at most. So I picked up a roast for $4. Then I added a couple of vegetables to my cart--a turnip, some carrots, an onion, some white sweet potatoes, some apples.

Tonight after work I thought it was high time to make the roast. The thing is I knew it would take about 25 minutes a pound to cook--so I was looking at dinner in an hour and a half. No big deal right? People eat latish dinners all the time...well it was ready at 9:30 and it was totally worth the wait! I made up this recipe almost entirely by myself--I only based the cooking time off another recipe and stuffing the middle with apples from something I read on Epicurious. Make this recipe! But maybe start earlier than 8pm.

Serves 4 with this size roast but you may want to increase the vegetables

Ingredients

Center Cut Pork Loin Roast, 2 1/2 lbs

1/2 C Apple Cider

1 Apples, chopped small

1/4 C craisins (or dried cherries!)

1 T fresh lemon juice

1/2 t cinnamon

salt

English Prime Rib Rub, to taste

1 large white sweet potato, cut into medium chunks

1 large onion, cut into thick rings

1 turnip, cut into medium chunks

3 carrots, cut into rounds

1 apple, cut into medium chunks

1 t olive oil

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees

2. In a small bowl mix the cinnamon, finely chopped apple, craisins, lemon juice and cider.

3. Cut a bit of an incision all the way through the pork and try to stuff in as much of the apple mixture inside

4. On a jelly roll pan toss vegetables with the olive oil and lay onions down flat as a sort of rack for the pork roast.

5. Salt the vegetables and pork and sprinkle with some English Prime Rib Rub or seasoning of your choice

6. Place the roast on the onions and move the vegetables to surround the onions. Pour the rest of the filling on top of the roast and vegetables

7. Roast for 25 minutes per pound--about 1 hour and 35 minutes in this case turning the pan midway through and tossing the vegetables at least once so they don't stick to the pan

8. When the pork reaches 150 degrees remove from oven and slice on a carving board with a mote as the juices will start to flow

9. Sneak a little of the crispy pork fat that has caramelized from the top of the roast. Don't tell anyone about it and eat it all yourself