amazing for large feasts! If you prefer to eat olive oil over butter, you can replace butter with it.
| Prep Time: | 30 mins |
| Cook Time: | 1 hr 20 mins |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 50 mins |
| Servings: | 10 |
| Yield: | 10 servings |
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 cup fresh sage
- 1 ½ tablespoons freshly ground black pepper
- 2 teaspoons freshly ground cumin seed
- 1 (3 pound) boneless pork loin roast – trimmed, rolled, and tied
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 3 bulbs fennel, trimmed, tops reserved
- 1 ½ cups orange juice
- 4 red onions with peel, halved
- ½ cup chicken stock
- 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
- salt to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
- Melt butter in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add 1/2 cup sage. Cook and stir until leaves are slightly crisp, about 1 minute. Remove leaves with a slotted spoon, and drain on paper towels. Cool, wrap in paper towels, and seal in a plastic bag. Set aside. Reserve the butter.
- Mix the pepper and cumin in a small bowl. Rinse roast and pat dry; rub evenly with the pepper and cumin. Tuck remaining 1/2 cup sage leaves under the strings on the smooth (fattiest) side of the roast. Set the pork, herb side up, on a rack in a roasting pan.
- Spread olive oil in the bottom of a medium baking dish. Thickly slice fennel and place in the dish. Toss to coat with the olive oil, and drizzle with 3/4 cup orange juice. Place onions in the dish cut side down.
- Place roast on the center rack in the preheated oven. Place fennel and onions on lower rack. Bake the pork and vegetables 1 hour, or until pork reaches a minimum internal temperature of 145 degrees F (63 degrees C) and vegetables are tender. Turn fennel once during bake time. Reserving drippings, transfer meat to a platter and keep warm; let stand at least 10 minutes. Keep the vegetables warm in the baking dish.
- Place the roasting pan with reserved drippings over high heat on the stove top, and mix in the reserved butter from Step 1, the remaining 3/4 cup orange juice, stock, and vinegar. Bring to a boil, and stir to scrape up any browned bits in the pan. Cook, stirring often, 10 minutes, or until reduced by about 1/2.
- Arrange onions and fennel around the pork. Garnish with fennel tops, sprinkle with the fried sage leaves, and season with salt to serve.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 311 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 15 g |
| Cholesterol | 73 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 3 g |
| Protein | 24 g |
| Saturated Fat | 6 g |
| Sodium | 152 mg |
| Sugars | 5 g |
| Fat | 17 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
This really is an excellent recipe. Reading the reviews first gave me insight to my own creation. As others did, I also substituted the basil for garlic embedded in the diagonal cuts I put in the top of the roast. I had to reduce the onion quantity in order to keep the complete meal on a lower cal/carb count. I added chunked turnips and roasted everything in the same pan. I basted with the orange sauce and about 8 minutes before removing my dinner from the oven, I acquired the orange sauce for reduction. This sauce is a MUST. It’s fantastic. I exchanged the vinegar for some white wine. Yum! My picky hubby said I could make it again. Use what fits your fancy, it’s quite adaptable. Thank you for the great recipe!
Really enjoyed the dish for something different. I’m new to fennel and this was a great introduction. Yummy recipe that I’ll make again.
Made it as recipe called for,but not for me.But I had never had fennel that way. Roast was nice and tender
This was excellent. I also added carrots.
Fantastic recipe! The whole family loved it. The reduction is sooo good that I could literally just eat that over rice without the roast which is also delicious. (It is so weird that people don’t follow the recipe and then give a critical review of 3 stars. Leaving out an ingredient does indeed change the recipe and the way the flavors work together much the way leaving one leg off a 3-legged stool would change the usefulness.)
i could only find a 2 pound roast, adjusted all of the other ingredients, love the fennel, always have, used less pepper, was wonderful, made some gravy from the juices, used the fennel frons, great we all loved this, blanched some green beans, stopped the cooking with ice water, then sautéed with some garlic salt and a little pepper, they still were bright green and a little crunch, love it, thanx for sharing
Made this tonight using a peppercorn pork tenderloin, so didn’t need to overdo the pepper; added the cumin and some fresh oregano and chopped fresh sage to the roast. Yummy. Never made fennel before, but made it in a baking dish/sauté pan with all the ingredients and included 1 shallot and 1/2 Vidalia onion. Made a gravy on top of the stove with all the juices and about a tsp of Dijon mustard and the balance of the fresh sage and the fennel fronds. Looks like dill, my favorite herb. Hubby liked the fennel; he’s a fan of licorice, so it was a success. Will make it again. Tks for a great, easy recipe.
I made this for Sunday Dinner and the family really enjoyed it. I did not have any chicken bulion but other than that I followed the recipe exactlly. I made the gravy from the broth and found it to be to bitter but that could have been because of the missing ingredient. I will definetly make this again.
Excellent and easy to make. 🙂
This was absolutely PHENOMINAL. I was skeptical because I grew up with a family only having burgers and fries, so fresh herbs are new to me and so not fennel. I did make changes though. I didn’t tie it, I just scored the meat diagonally, and stuffed the sage and garlic cloves. I did think that there was too much pepper but that is my own personal choice. I would suggest only a teaspoon maybe a little more. also, if you let the fennel and onions carmelize or almost burn after the OJ evaporates, IS AMAZING! yet again, my own personal taste. 2 thumbs up!
Fantastic!
Wonderful Roasted Pork recipe. the Fennel adds so much to the flavor that I wonder why I didn’t think of it before.
I didn’t include the sage as we aren’t fans. Even without the sage I thought there were way too many conflicting flavors going on. The orange/balsamic reduction wasn’t bad but it did not complement the fennel, onions and cumin flavors at all. This was ok but I wouldn’t make it again. Thanks anyway.
Terrific, will make again for a special family meal. Thanks for the recipe!
Found the ‘Roast Pork Fennel,’ to have a great taste. Thank you for the ‘new,’ to me…, recipe.