I Love a Southwest Salad

Sorry it's been so long since I last posted- it's been a busy couple of weeks! I've had a wonderful 10 days of visitors- first my parents and then Erin and Emily, two of my former co-workers, came into town. My time was full of good conversation, good wine, and mostly good food. One of the greatest things for me about my parents visiting is that I'm always left with a fridge stock full of food. However, this blessing isn't the greatest thing for my new blogging hobby! While I've slowly been going through the restaurant left-overs, I had the day off work today and I decided to head back into the kitchen.

For one of the many concoctions we whipped up during my reunion weekend, a whole can of chipotle peppers was purchased. Now I love the flavor of chipotle, but I have to say, I don't really know who needs that whole can! Amongst the many things left in my apartment once all my wonderful friends departed, was an entire tupperware of delicious, smoky, spicy-sweet chipotle peppers. After whipping up some chipotle hummus, I realized I needed to make something a whole lot bigger if I was going to make a dent in my pepper stock. I knew I wanted to eat salads this week, because after a week of eating out, my veggie intake was seriously lacking. One of my favorite salads of all time is a southwest salad. After perusing on pinterest, it was decided- grilling a Chipotle Glazed Pork Tenderloin would satisfy my ingredient, craving, and budget needs. 

Doesn't that look delicious?

 Here are the ingredients I used for the glaze- I'm pretty sure you could get away with only using about four of them (chipotle peppers, brown sugar, ketchup and lime juice), but I had most of them in my kitchen already.

 I couldn't quite capture how beautiful the sauce looked- it was a deep red with these goldish tints in it- and little green flakes from the cilantro.. yummmmm!

 I had to give a shout-out for my immersion blender. I love this thing! I use it for smoothies, hummus, soup, and now chipotle glazes. It's definitely a non-necessity tool, but for $30, you won't regret it- you have my word. 

Now I know there are a lot of women my age out there who claim to hate pork. I don't why this is, but I think it's a hidden gem in the grocery store. It's a good source of protein, leaner than red meat, it's filling, and most of all it's so cheap! I got this whole tenderloin for $5.48 from Trader Joes- pretty impressive, right?

I like to pretend I have a grill by using this grill pan and getting sear marks when I'm cooking meat- definitely makes me feel a little fancier. The trick is to not turn the meat too much and to keep it on the pan a little longer then you think you should- it's not burning- just getting those nice lines!

I put the glaze on there as it baked and once I took it out, I had a beautiful smoky, spicy-yet-sweet pork tenderloin. Throw it on some baby spinach with roasted corn, feta, and sauteed zucchini and you have yourself a delicious well-balanced salad!

Oh and here's a song for today- it's been stuck in my head all day: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpQFFLBMEPI

Ingredients for the pork tenderloin:

3-4 chipotle peppers + 1 tbsp adobo sauce (I used this can)

1.5 tbsp brown sugar

1 tbsp ketchup

1 tsp lime juice

1 tsp diced garlic

2 tbsp cilantro

1/2 tsp cumin

1 tsp salt

~1.25 pound pork tenderloin

Extra ingredients for the salad:

1.5 cups baby spinach

2 tbsp corn (I used Trader Joe's frozen roasted corn- which is delicious!)

2 tbsp sauteed zucchini (just toss it on a pan with olive oil salt and pepper)

1 tsp crumbled feta

Directions:

1) Blend peppers, brown sugar, ketchup, lime juice, garlic, cilantro, cumin and salt until smooth and there are no longer chunks of pepper in the sauce.

2) Trim fat off of pork tenderloin and cover in sauce. Refrigerate for a couple hours or overnight if time allows.

3) Sear pork tenderloin on grill or grill pan, if you have one available (if not, just bake a little longer). 

4) Finish pork tenderloin in the oven at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes- adding glaze and turning tenderloin every five minutes. 

5) Allow tenderloin to sit for 10-15 minutes before cutting.

6) If tossing with a salad- toss it in your salad!

7) Enjoy!