Pork Tenderloin Traybake with Charred Broccoli, Almonds, and Dill Yogurt
Whole pork tenderloins roasted on one tray with broccoli and red onion until the florets char at the tips, finished with chopped almonds and a cold lemon and dill yogurt.
Why You'll Love This Recipe
This is my Tuesday dinner. One tray, one bowl to whisk the sauce in, and thirty minutes in a very hot oven while I put the kettle on. Pork tenderloin is the cut that makes a traybake worth doing on a weeknight, because it is close-grained and quick-cooking and goes from raw to done in about twenty minutes. The broccoli takes roughly the same time if you give it a head start, so the whole dinner runs on one timer and comes out of the oven together.
The trick is heat and space. A 450°F oven and a tray the vegetables can sit on in a single layer is what turns broccoli from something polite into something you eat with your fingers off the pan. The tips go dark and brittle, the thick stems turn sweet, and the red onion collapses into soft sticky wedges around them. The pork goes in later so it finishes at the same moment, and it comes out at 145°F with a faint blush in the middle, which is where it stays juicy.
Cold sauce on hot food is the part people remember. The yogurt goes on straight from the refrigerator, sharp with lemon and grated raw garlic and loose with dill, and it melts a little where it touches the pork. Then chopped almonds over the top for something to bite against all that soft roasted vegetable. It is a big plate, it is genuinely filling, and I have never had anyone leave broccoli behind when it is cooked this dark.
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 lb pork tenderloin (usually 2 small tenderloins), silverskin trimmed off
- 2 large heads broccoli (about 1 1/4 lb florets), cut into large florets, stems peeled and sliced
- 1 red onion, cut through the root into thick wedges
- 5 garlic cloves, 3 smashed and 2 grated fine for the sauce
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 1/2 tsp ground coriander
- 1 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
- 3/4 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
- 1/3 tsp fine sea salt
- 1/2 cup whole raw almonds, roughly chopped
- 1 1/4 cups plain nonfat skyr
- 3 tbsp chopped fresh dill, plus a few fronds to finish
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
Instructions
- Heat the oven properly: Put a large rimmed sheet pan on the middle rack and heat the oven to 450°F. Give it a full fifteen minutes after it beeps. Broccoli laid on a cold tray steams in its own moisture and never chars, and a preheated pan starts the browning the second the florets touch metal.
- Season everything: Toss the broccoli, onion wedges, and smashed garlic cloves with half the olive oil, the smoked paprika, half the black pepper, and half the salt. Rub the tenderloins with the rest of the oil, the ground coriander, and the remaining pepper and salt, working it into every surface with your hands, since a tenderloin is a smooth cut with nowhere for seasoning to catch unless you press it on.
- Roast the vegetables first: Pull out the hot tray, spread the broccoli and onion across it in a single layer, and listen for the sizzle. Roast for ten minutes without touching it, because every time the tray comes out the oven drops and the browning stops. The undersides should be well browned and the exposed tips beginning to blacken.
- Add the pork: Push the vegetables to the edges, lay the tenderloins down the center, and return the tray to the oven for eighteen to twenty-two minutes. Turn the pork once halfway. It is done when an instant-read thermometer in the thickest part reads 145°F. Move it to a board and let it rest for five minutes before slicing, so that the juices settle back into the meat instead of running out across the board.
- Toast the almonds and mix the sauce: While the pork rests, toast the chopped almonds in a dry skillet over medium heat for three to four minutes, shaking often, until they smell nutty and the cut faces are gold. Whisk the skyr with the lemon juice, the grated garlic, the chopped dill, and a splash of cold water until it pours slowly off the spoon, since straight from the tub it sits in a lump instead of running over the tray.
- Slice and build: Cut the tenderloin into thick slices on a slight angle and lay them back over the vegetables so the juices run into the pan. Spoon the yogurt over in wide stripes rather than mixing it through, so that some bites are cool and sharp and others are only pork and char, scatter the almonds and the reserved dill, and bring the tray to the table.
Variations
- Mint and lemon zest: Swap the dill for chopped mint and add the zest of the lemon to the sauce for a brighter, greener spoonful.
- Cauliflower and broccoli together: Use half broccoli and half cauliflower on the tray. The cauliflower browns more slowly, so cut it a little smaller.
- Chile heat: Add a quarter teaspoon of cayenne to the pork rub, or scatter thin slices of fresh chile over the tray for the last five minutes.
- Turkey tenderloin: Turkey tenderloin roasts on nearly the same timing and takes the coriander rub just as well. Cook it through to 165°F.
- Sesame in place of almonds: Toasted sesame seeds over the top give a smaller, sandier crunch and suit the yogurt sauce well.
Storage & Leftovers
Keep the components apart and this holds four days in the refrigerator. Pork and broccoli go in one container, the yogurt sauce in a jar, and the almonds in a small bag at room temperature so they stay crisp. Sauce poured over hot food and then refrigerated turns the broccoli soft and watery overnight.
Reheat the pork and vegetables in a 400°F oven for six or seven minutes, spread out on a tray again rather than piled in a dish. That brings back some of the char. A skillet over medium-high works too. Sliced pork reheats fast, so pull it while it is still just warm through.
The pork freezes well for two months, sliced and sealed flat, and thaws overnight in the refrigerator. Broccoli does not freeze happily after roasting and comes back limp, so I roast a fresh head when I use frozen pork. Make the yogurt sauce fresh either way, since it takes two minutes.
Notes & Tips
- Preheat the tray, not just the oven: This is the single step that decides whether the broccoli chars or steams. Fifteen minutes with the empty pan inside is worth the wait.
- Trim the silverskin: That thin pearly membrane along the tenderloin does not soften in the oven and pulls the meat into a curve as it cooks. Slide a knife under it and strip it off.
- Peel the broccoli stems: The outer layer is tough and fibrous, but the core underneath roasts sweeter than the florets. Peel it, slice it thick, and put it on the tray.
- Use a thermometer on the pork: Tenderloin is narrow and goes from juicy to dry in about three minutes. Pull it at 145°F and let carryover heat do the rest while it rests.
- Grate the garlic for the sauce: A rasp grater gives you a smooth paste that disappears into the yogurt. Chopped garlic stays in sharp little pieces and dominates every third bite.
- Chop the almonds by hand: A food processor turns them to dust. Rough uneven pieces cut with a knife are what give you the crunch across the whole plate.
Nutrition & Mindful Eating
- Pork, broccoli, almonds, and yogurt divide the work between them here. The tenderloin carries the protein, the broccoli brings fiber and bulk, and the skyr and almonds are where most of the calcium on this tray comes from.
- Pork tenderloin is a close-grained, quick-cooking cut with a mild flavor that takes a spice rub well, and it brings thiamin, one of the B vitamins pork supplies more generously than nearly any other food.
- Broccoli roasted this hard tastes almost nutty where the tips blacken, and it holds onto its vitamin C and its sulfur compounds better in dry oven heat than it does in a pot of boiling water.
- Skyr is strained until it is thick enough to stand a spoon in, which is why a modest amount of it carries so much protein and calcium into the sauce along with its clean sourness.
- Almonds toasted in a dry pan give the plate its crunch, and they bring calcium and vitamin E in a form that keeps well in a jar on the counter.
- As you eat, notice the two temperatures on the fork at once, the hot charred broccoli and the cold sauce, and let that contrast slow you down enough to finish the plate at a pace you actually taste.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I use pork chops in place of the tenderloin?
Yes. Thick bone-in chops need the same 145°F finish but take a few minutes longer, so add them to the tray at the same time as the broccoli rather than after it. Boneless chops are thinner and go in with about twelve minutes left.
My broccoli went soggy rather than charred.
Two usual causes. The tray was crowded, in which case use two pans and rotate them halfway, or the florets went on wet, so shake them dry in a colander and let them sit while the oven heats. A cold pan does it as well, which is why the tray preheats.
Can I prepare any of this ahead?
The sauce is better made a few hours ahead, since the raw garlic mellows into the yogurt and the dill perfumes the whole bowl. You can also cut the broccoli and rub the pork in the morning and keep both covered in the refrigerator, which leaves you nothing but the oven at dinnertime.
What if I do not have skyr?
Plain nonfat Greek yogurt behaves almost the same way, a little looser and a little milder, so use slightly less water when you thin it. Whichever you use, take it out of the refrigerator at the last minute. The contrast between the cold sauce and the hot pork is most of the pleasure.