Pork + Kale Quinoa Salad
We are currently in the middle of COVID-19 quarantining, so I've been cooking every. single. meal. at home. I've also been trying to minimize my trips to the grocery store by using up whatever we have at home. Since we happened to have pork tenderloin in the freezer, and I was craving something nutritious and salad-y, this little hodge-podge of a salad is what I ended up doing. Everyone looooved it!
Ingredients
- 1 lb pork tenderloin
- 3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- pinch sea salt to taste
- pepper to taste
Salad
- 1 cup quinoa
- 1 1/2 cups chicken bone broth you can use water instead if you prefer
- 3/4 cup dried cherries or you can use fresh, pitted cherries
- 5 scallions thinly sliced
- 1 cup kale finely chopped
- 1/4 cup sliced almonds
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
Instructions
- For the marinade, in a large ziploc or container, combine 3 tbsp each of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Add pork and toss to coat, then refrigerate at least 4 hours, or overnight.
- When you're ready to cook, preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
- Remove pork from marinade, place it on a sheet pan, and season with salt and pepper.
- Roast pork until internal temp reaches between 145 degrees (medium rare) and 160 degrees (medium), on a meat thermometer, about 25 - 30 minutes. Set aside to rest 10 minutes.
- While pork is roasting, bring the bone broth up to a boil, add quinoa, cover and simmer for 15 - 20 min, until broth is fully absorbed. Fluff with a fork.
- Cut pork into bite-sized pieces. In a large bowl, combine pork and any cooking juices with quinoa, cherries, scallions and almonds. Gently stir in kale, vinegar and olive oil. Add salt and pepper to taste, and more oil and vinegar if you like.