I love cooking sous vide. It’s a really cool concept. You basically vacuum seal something (usually meat) and put it in a water bath that’s kept at a constant temperature. Eventually the meat is the same temperature all the way through, at which point you take it out of the bath and give it a quick sear on the outside to get that nice delicious browning. It makes the meat perfectly cooked without any guesswork.
For this recipe, I started by wanting to make a Cuban sandwich, so I needed some roast pork for the base. I’ll post the recipe for the sandwich next, of course, because it turned out awesome. I did the whole thing under a bit of a time crunch, so I didn’t have time to fully marinate the meat. Thankfully, I came up with a great alternative option, which was to make a paste out of the spices and liquid, so a little bit of the flavor of what would have been in the marinade got into the meat as it cooked. It worked beautifully!
First of all, you’ll need a vacuum sealer and a sous vide device of some sort. The gold standard of food sealers is the FoodSaver. Don’t get the cheapest one, as it has terrible reviews. This one is the best-reviewed of the bunch, but if the price tag freaks you out a bit, there’s always a decent one on sale at Costco if you have a membership. You’ll also need a sous vide cooker. I have the Sous Vide Supreme Demi, which I got as a gift, but I have friends who swear by the Anova, and you can’t argue with that price tag.
Start out by setting your sous vide to 140 degrees Fahrenheit (60 Celsius). I used two small pork tenderloins, which turned out to be just shy of two pounds total of meat. Throw those into a vacuum seal bag. In a small bowl, mix together two tablespoons of cumin, a tablespoon of oregano, two teaspoons of salt, and a teaspoon each of garlic powder and onion powder. Also add however much black pepper you want. When you have all that mixed together, whisk in two tablespoons of orange juice and one tablespoon of lime juice. You should end up with a paste. Put it in the bag with the pork and massage it around to make sure it coats them evenly, then seal the bag using the “Moist” setting so the liquid all stays in the bag. Submerge them in the sous vide and let them stay in there for four hours.
When you remove them from the bag, pat them dry and discard any remaining juices. Heat two tablespoons of avocado oil over high heat in an enameled cast iron skillet, and sear the pork for about two minutes per side. To serve, slice it thinly. While I used this in a sandwich, it would also be great over mashed cauliflower with a veggie side. This is a great meal for your non-keto family to eat as well, as it’s fairly lean and would be great with some quick beans and rice and pineapple.
Sous Vide Cuban Pork Tenderloin
Equipment
- Vacuum sealer
- Sous vide apparatus
Ingredients
- 2 lbs pork tenderloin cut into two pieces
- 2 tbsp ground cumin
- 1 tbsp ground oregano
- 2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp onion powder
- black pepper to taste
- 2 tbsp orange juice
- 1 tbsp lime juice
- 2 tbsp avocado oil for searing
Instructions
- Preheat your sous vide to 140 degrees Fahrenheit (60 celsius).
- Add the pork to a vacuum sealer bag, leaving it open.
- Mix together the cumin, oregano, salt, onion powder, garlic powder, and black pepper in a small bowl. Add the orange and lime juices and whisk until it makes a paste. Pour the paste into the bag with the pork and massage it around so that the pork is covered. Seal the bag using the moist food setting and put it in the sous vide for 4 hours.
- Remove the bag, open it with scissors, and drain the liquids. Pat each piece of pork dry with paper towels. Heat the oil in a large enameled cast-iron skillet over high heat, then sear the pork for two minutes per side. Slice thinly to serve.
- For the macros, since only a negligible amount of the paste actually ends up on the finished product, I'm only calculating the pork itself. Per serving, it's 130 calories, 0 grams of carbs, 23 grams of protein, and 4 grams of fat.
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