Crockpot Pork with Apples and Sweet Potatoes

Adapted from Cheap, Healthy, Good

Spending all day in the clinic and coming home to a warm apartment smelling strongly of pork, sweet potatoes, and apples is wonderful. This crockpot dish is a hearty meal, and a cold weather cure! If you plan on cooking it, don't forget to marinate the pork the night before. Otherwise, you might find yourself like us, springing out of bed to make the brine at midnight! It is always nice to have the cooking done ahead of time though, so it's all ready to eat by dinnertime. The original recipe also suggests adding cinnamon, dried cranberries, or nutmeg, but we thought there was enough flavor without extra spices.

Ingredients:

For the brine:

• 1 cup vegetable broth
• 3 tbsp. salt
• 3 tbsp. light brown sugar
• 2 tsp. ground black pepper
• 1/2 lb. ice
• 8 oz. pork tenderloin

For the crockpot:

• 1 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
• 3 tbsp. brown sugar
• 2 Golden Delicious apples, cored and sliced into 1/2-inch wedges
• 2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and diced into small squares
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• 1 large red onion, sliced into 1/4-inch rings

Directions:

Stir the vegetable broth, salt, brown sugar, and pepper for the brine in a medium saucepan. Turn to medium-high heat and cook until sugar and salt dissolve, stirring occasionally. Take pan off the burner and add ice, stirring until ice melts. Place pork in a gallon-size bag or dish. Pour in the brine, and refrigerate overnight, or about 8 hours.

Remove pork from bag or dish; discard the brine. Rinse the pork and pat them as dry as possible. Set aside. In a skillet, heat olive oil on medium-high heat. Cook pork on the skillet, 5-6 minutes per side.

Meanwhile, in a small bowl mix brown sugar with apples to coat. Save the leftover sugar for later.

Place sweet potatoes in the bottom of the crockpot; season with salt and pepper. Start layering the dish in this order: ½ the onion, ½ the apple slices, pork, other 1/2 onion, the rest of the apples, and finally sprinkle the leftover brown sugar. Cook on high for 4 1/2 hours. Lightly stir before serving.

Yield: 3 servings