Roast Pork Loin with Yogurt, Mustard, and Fresh Dill

This recipe starts with a boneless pork loin, slathered in a yogurt/mustard/fresh dill coating, then roasted to juicy tenderness. Served alongside dilled carrots, French breakfast radishes, and mashed potatoes it's a wonderful Sunday dinner.

This post is sponsored by the Ohio Pork Council. They paid me for my time, I bought my ingredients and created this recipe.

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The unifying theme today is the massive pile of fresh dill I have from my Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share. In my garden, I'll let my dill go to seed for all the pickles I put up and my plants petered out months ago. The dill from Mile Creek Farm is still going strong, though, and I've got a lot to work with. In the past I've shared How to Make Dill Butter, but I had more dill than that. [Two more big bunches like the one shown in the photo below.] I used some to make the Roasted Carrots with Fresh Dill shown alongside the pork. I used more tossed in with my mashed potatoes, though not full on MA's Make Ahead Mashed Potato Casserole like I'll be making later this month for Thanksgiving. I'll vacuum seal/freeze some of this fresh dill, and dehydrate the rest in the oven. I'll be making my own spice blend for my Spiced Cottage Cheese Potato Chip Dip which has my family unduly excited.

It's been a while since we've had a big Sunday Supper sort of meal. While my family eats together most nights of the week, the resumption of activities once the school year starts means that we are more fractured around the dining room table certain evenings. My son and I eat early, before leaving for hockey practice on hockey nights. My spouse and I often eat together while our daughter is at her weekly sewing class. Warm weather and busy weekends mean that we haven't sat down to a more traditional meat & potatoes kind of meal in forever!

When the Ohio Pork Council asked me to come up with a recipe for pork loin, chops, or tenderloin I headed to my local farmer's market to ask Jean Mattis of KJB farms what she recommended. She sold me a piece of boneless pork loin, perfect for roasting, then snagged another market goer to give me tips on how to cook it. Talk above service! Then I headed to volunteer at the thrift shop and got Emily's tips for using yogurt, mustard, and fresh herbs to make a flavorful crust for roasted pork. Finally, my fellow prep cooks at work helped me brain storm some vegetable side dishes using more of the abundant fresh dill. It really took a village on this recipe!

For more recipes using herbs, please see my Recipes Using Herbs Collection. It's part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient, a resource for folks like me eating from the farm share, the farmer's market, the garden, the neighbor's garden, and great deals on ugly produce at the grocery store.

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NOTE:  For more information on properly preparing pork, please see this fact sheet of Pork Cooking Times and Temperatures. In order to avoid contamination of the yogurt mixture, I used a spoon to transfer the yogurt onto the pork, then used my hands or a basting brush to coat the pork with the yogurt mixture. If your spoon accidentally contacts the uncooked pork, just grab a fresh spoon the next time you need to coat the roast with additional yogurt.

Roast Pork Loin with Yogurt, Mustard, and Fresh Dill (serves 4 to 6)

Ingredients

• 1 cup whole milk plain yogurt (or substitute Greek yogurt)
• 2 Tablespoons mustard (I used a stone ground brown mustard)
• ⅓ cup chopped fresh dill
• 2 to 3 pound boneless pork loin roast
• ¾ teaspoon salt (I use kosher)
• ½ teaspoon black pepper (I'm grinding and guesstimating)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. In a small bowl mix together yogurt, mustard, and dill.
2. Place pork roast on a rack in a rimmed pan. [I'm using a rack I inherited from my mom which fits in a 9x13 glass baking dish.] Remove 2 large spoonfuls of yogurt mixture from the bowl and plop it onto the roast. [See NOTE above.] Rub the yogurt on all sides of the roast, ending up with the roast, fat side up, on the rack in the pan. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
3. Place the roast into the oven. Set the timer for 15 minutes and when time's up remove and repeat the 2 large spoonful yogurt coating. I used a basting brush to spread the yogurt around on the top and sides of the roast only. 
4. Return to oven. Set the timer for 15 minutes, and when time's up remove the roast from the oven and repeat the yogurt coating. Return roast to oven. Set the timer for 15 minutes.
5. Remove the roast and check the internal temperature. We're looking for 145 to 160 degrees Fahrenheit, which gives you a blush of pink and very moist, tender meat. If your roast is not yet at temperature, repeat the yogurt coating and roast for additional 10 minute increments until you hit 145 degrees. I then turned on the broiler for a minute to brown the yogurt crust a bit.
6. Remove the roast and let it rest, covered loosely with aluminum foil, for 5 to 10 minutes before slicing and serving.