Pork & Spiced Rhubarb Chutney

So I don't usually cook with rhubarb. It's a pretty awkward plant...those large red/green weedish stalks that sit in the corner of the produce aisles...yeah you and I pass them up all the time. But apparently they have more use than just in strawberry-rhubarb pies.

I was looking for a recipe to use for my pork tenderloin cuts I got from my CSA with Pat's Pastured. One of my favorite recipe database sites, Epicurious, had a recipe for Pork Tenderloin with a Spiced Rhubarb Chutney. I liked the idea of creating some sweet, sour and spicy chutney! But alas, the first ingredient called for on the list was....sugaring

Well, instead of completely ditching this recipe since it had a ton of great reviews, I decided to make a few "paleo friendly" modifications...after all, when you cook and eat paleo for so long, you start to learn some pretty creative substitutions. After looking through the recipe and noticing the selection of fruits near the end (dried cherries), I decided that I would substitute the "sugar" portion with a cup of pitted cherries instead. Still some sweetness, but a lot more "caveman approved"

Pork Tenderloin with Spiced Cherry & Rhubarb Chutney


Ingredients:
- 1 cup pitted, chopped cherries (don't ask me the right way to pit these cherries...I ended up biting them in half and eating the pulp stuck to the pits before I threw them out...a great pre-dinner snack!
- 1/3 cup cider vinegar
- 1 tbsp minced fresh peeled ginger
- 1 tbsp ground garlic (or I just minced a few garlic cloves)
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon (I went pretty liberal on this :-D )
- 1/2 tsp ground cloves
- 1/4 tsp dried crushed red pepper (I just used a few sprinkles of cayenne)

- 4 cups fresh rhubarb, ends chopped up and stalks diced into 1/2 inch cubes. (It took me about 3-4 average sized stalks)
- 1/2 cup chopped red onion
- 1/2 cup dried tart cherries or golden raisins (I actually used dried cranberries since I was too lazy to buy dried cherries)


- pork tenderloins steaks (any # is fine, you will have lots of chutney)
- 2 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tbsp cooking oil (I like bacon grease, you could use butter, avocado or coconut oil)

this chutney is amazing!

Combine the first 8 ingredients in a decent sized pot (it's gotta fit all that rhubarb!) and bring it to a simmer on low-medium heat. After a couple minutes simmering, add the rhubarb, onion and dried cherries/cranberries/raisins. Increase the heat to about medium high and keep it cooking until the rhubarb turns tender and the mixture thickens. Takes about 5-10 minutes depending on your stove. I personally preferred the rhubarb to be broken down a little instead of left in chunks so I went with 10 minutes. Take it off the heat and start cooling it down in the fridge!

The original recipe said to cool it down completely...I was fine just using it warm in the next step with the pork.

Love that T-Bone in there 

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Next, sprinkle plenty of cumin, salt and pepper on your pork steaks. Add your cooking fat to your skillet, turn it on high and add the pork steaks, browning them on both sides (without cooking them completely). Takes about 1-2 minutes per side. Then, transfer the pork to a roasting dish and brush it a few times with the chutney. Place it in the oven for about 7-10 minutes. 7 if you tend to like your pork a little on the pinker side, or 10-12 if you like it fairly well done. You can always check with a meat thermometer as well: When it reads 155F, it's done. 

I decided to add some caramelized broccoli rabe to my plate as well...a nice simple green, slightly sweet and bitter, to complement the pork. To make the broccoli rabe, just add it back to the skillet you were using to brown the pork, add a couple tbsp of water, cover with a lid and let simmer for about 4 minutes. Then lift the lid and continue cooking until the sides of the broccoli rabe start to turn golden brown.

Oh this looks delish!

Lastly, top your pork with the glorious chutney! I have to say, without using "sugar" and substituting the cherries, the chutney still grabs a nice sweetness but a tartness as well. The pork was absolutely succulent (I'm never disappointed with the meats I get from Pat's Pastured).

Hope you can enjoy this dish! I think I'll be using this chutney with lots of different meats in the next few days...