I love this dish. It’s a beautiful presentation, a perfect dish for when you have company, and it looks like you toiled away in the kitchen for hours when, in reality, you haven’t at all. The complete recipe does take an hour and a half. But most of that time is inactive roasting time, meaning most of the work is done by your oven. And the clean-up is quite easy because all of your sides are roasted in the same pan as the pork loin, braised in all of the same flavorful broth. So delicious and perfect for a Sunday night.
Here are all of the ingredients you’ll need. Items you’ll need that are not shown include the pork loin, olive oil, and salt and pepper.
Begin by preparing the pork. Pork loin is already a relatively lean cut of meat, and you can significantly reduce the saturated fat in the dish simply by removing the layer of fat that covers the top of the pork loin. This dish contains a lot of complex and delicious flavors, so there’s really no need for the added saturated fat.
To remove the fat, you’ll need a really sharp knife. Hold it horizontally and cut just below the fat with one hand as you use the other hand to slowly pull back the fat, in the opposite direction from the knife.
It’s not the easiest job if you’ve never done it, so I’d highly recommend asking your butcher to remove the fat for you when you purchase the meat. If your butcher is anything like mine, he may subtly roll his eyes if you ask for this though. So that’s basically the toughest choice you’ll make with this recipe – whether to spend the time and effort butchering the meat or else endure the eye roll. The choice is tough, but the final result makes it worth it, I promise!
So next, you’ll want to butterfly the pork. Using the same sharp knife you used to remove the fat, cut directly through the center of the loin holding the knife horizontally. Cut all the way through until you have just about 1/2 inch left to go, and then unfold the meat like a book.
Place some parchment paper or plastic wrap over the loin and pound it with a meat mallet. You can make this as thin as you’d like.
Next, prepare the dijon and herb filling. Chop up the garlic. Pull some rosemary from their stems (hold the rosemary spring at the tip with one hand and slide the other hand down the stem, pulling off the rosemary) and chop that up too.
Pull thyme from the stem using the same process as the rosemary.
I love using fresh herbs in roast dishes like this. In fact, I love using fresh herbs in almost all dishes. They add a ton of flavor without any fat or calories. Plus, most are loaded with healthy antioxidants.
Combine the dijon, rosemary, thyme, and half of the garlic in a small bowl.
Season the butterflied pork with salt and pepper and then use a small spatula to spread the dijon filling all across the top of the pork, leaving about 1/2 inch along the edges uncovered. I’ve tried placing dijon, garlic, and herbs on the outside of pork roasts in the past, but the delicate herbs tend to burn when roasted. By rolling them up inside of the pork, you get all of the delicious flavors baked right inside – so flavorful.
Prepare your roasting dish next. Cut a couple of pieces of kitchen twine and lay them across the roasting pan in preparation for the pork.
If you don’t already have some kitchen twine, you don’t need to go to a speciality store to find it – it’s available at any grocery store.
Now the fun part – roll up the pork loin as you would a jelly roll, keeping the roll as tight and closely pressed as you can.
Place the loin with the seam-side down in the roasting pan over the twine. Now tie the twine tightly with a couple of knots. I placed the loin in the pan with the seam on top just to demonstrate how it will kind of unravel a bit in the finished product when the seam is on top. This wasn’t a mistake at all. It was just to show how it will taste as delicious regardless of perfect presentation. Did you believe that?
Brush just a teaspoon or so of oil oil over the pork to help it brown nicely in the oven and season with salt and pepper.
Next up is lots of winter vegetables. I used carrots, parsnips, onions, celery and potatoes. This is a delicious combination with the dijon, and white wine we’ll use for the broth, but use your favorites here!
Large, chunky-cut vegetables work best for this recipe. So very little time is needed chopping vegetables here (phew!) Arrange them around the pork loin and season well with salt and pepper. Next, sprinkle the rest of the garlic over the vegetables and place several sprigs of rosemary and thyme over them. Drizzle about a tablespoon of olive oil over the vegetables and mix them around a bit to make sure everything is well-combined. Pour some white wine and chicken broth over the vegetables, add a bay leaf, and place the roasting pan in the oven.
After about 20 minutes, stir the vegetables and add additional broth and wine. After another 20 minutes or so, your roast should be done and the vegetables should all be nicely softened.
Place the roast on a plate or cutting board to rest for about 10 minutes and prepare the dijon gravy in the meantime.
Pour all of the white wine and broth from the roasting pan into a small saucepan and bring to a simmer.
Add a tablespoon of dijon and use a whisk to combine, stirring constantly until all of the mustard has dissolved and the broth has thickened.
Now slice into the roast and admire the beautiful presentation. Serve along with lots of the roasted vegetables. Pour the dijon gravy over everything.
This is sooo delicious and one of my favorites, hands down, for winter. Try it this weekend!
Here is the complete recipe:
Dijon and Herb Roast Pork with Winter Vegetables
Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Prep: 30 minutes
Cook: 1 hour
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients
1 (2 pound) loin of pork (fat trimmed off)
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon dijon mustard
7 cloves garlic, minced
9 springs fresh thyme
9 springs fresh rosemary
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
5 large carrots, chopped
6 ribs celery with leaves, chopped
5 small parsnips, chopped
4 small russet potatoes, chopped
1 bay leaf
2 cups white wine
3 cups chicken broth
salt and freshly ground black pepper
Directions
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
Cut through the center of the pork loin from left to right, holding the knife horizontally. Leave about 1/2 inch at the right end and fold open to butterfly the meat. Cover the butterflied pork with parchment or plastic wrap and pound to about 1/2-inch thickness with a meat mallet. Season the meat with salt and pepper.
Finely chop half of the rosemary and half of the thyme. In a small bowl, combine 1/2 cup dijon, half of the minced garlic, and the chopped rosemary and thyme. Spread the dijon-herb mixture over the butterflied loin, leaving about 1/2-inch border around the edges of the meat uncovered.
Place two 1 1/2 foot pieces of kitchen twine across a large roasting pan, in preparation to be tied around the two ends of the rolled pork roast. Roll up the pork just like a jelly roll, keeping the meat as tightly rolled as possible. Place the rolled pork over the twine with the seam side down on the bottom of the pan and tie up the two ends. Brush about 1 tablespoon of oil across the top of the pork roll and season with salt and pepper.
Arrange all of the vegetables and potatoes around the pork loin in the roasting pan. Drizzle the vegetables with 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Add the bay leaf, the rest of the garlic, and the remaining rosemary and thyme sprigs. Season vegetables with salt and pepper. Pour 1 cup of chicken broth and 2/3 cup wine over the vegetables, and then place the roasting pan in the oven. After 20 minutes, remove from oven. Stir vegetables to ensure even cooking and add 1 cup of chicken broth and 2/3 cup of wine. After another 20 minutes, remove pan from oven. The pork should be nicely browned on top with an internal temperature of 160 degrees F. Transfer pork and vegetables to a large serving platter. Allow pork to rest for 10 minutes before cutting and serving.
While the pork rests, prepare the sauce: after transferring pork and vegetables to a serving platter, pour the cooking liquids from the roasting pan into a small sauce pot. Turn the heat to medium-high and add the remaining tablespoon dijon mustard. Whisk constantly until well-combined, allowing sauce to simmer until it thickens, about 10 minutes. Pour over the meat and vegetables.
My mouth is watering…
this recipe it’s seem completly delicious, but i have a peticion to you, could you post a recipe whit lamb, i have a lot in my kitchen but i dont now how i can prepare, i thank you if you give me some important’s tips to prepare this delicious meat. thanks scrumptious pumpking
Excellent post, you’ve described the entire process well.
Hey,
I want to say to you, that it is a very great and delicious blog, I´m quite amazed:)
your recipes are also healthy, this is very nice.
I´m also a blogger, but from Germany… my blog is called “workhealthbalance.wordpress.com”
and in the focus of it stands HEALTH.
One of my favourite habits is cooking, therefore I like your blog very much:)
lovely regards from Germany!
This may be an odd question since this dish clearly involves mustard, but is the mustard very apparent in this dish taste-wise? I ask because while I’m not a fan of mustard, this recipe has me salivating like a mad woman and I don’t want to end up not liking it simply because of the mustard factor. Any thoughts?
I’d say the dijon is pretty prominent in the pork. Maybe instead: use less of the dijon and add a splash of white wine and a couple tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil to the garlic and herb spread.
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