Slow Cooker Pork Tenderloin & Veggies in the crockpot is such an amazing treat for dinner!
We have not eaten much pork through the years, other than bacon, sausage and pepperoni. One of the reasons is because my husband claimed that all he liked was thin cut, boneless pork chops. For me, there didn’t seem to be much I could make with thin cut pork chops, other than pan fried chops, so I didn’t venture into pork as a meat for dinner very often, because frankly, I wasn’t a fan of pan fried pork chops.
Enter food blogging and his crazy wife suddenly is trying anything and everything she can make in a slow cooker or an Instant Pot.
I’m so glad he’s gotten so much more willing to try new foods, it’s been a lot more fun to feed him! And fun to feed the whole family for that matter.
OK, so a little background on this Slow Cooker Pork Loin and Veggies . meal. I’m a big fan of complete meals. The ones where all the side dishes are all cooked together with the rest of the meal. For one, it eliminates some work for me. I love how the vegetables slowly get infused with the taste of the sauce and meat and how soft the vegetables are. It’s seriously making my mouth water, just thinking about it! But this recipe? The sauce alone is amazing. It makes a great gravy for the meat once you serve it. I’ve not used the baby new potatoes in a long time and forgot just how wonderful they are, too. So yes, try this recipe! You’ll LOVE it!
I didn’t really plan to get into food blogging. I had people flocking to my Freezer to Slow Cooker page and then again to my Slow Cooker Ground Beef recipes, and slowly but surely my blog changed more into a food blog. Because he’s realized that he usually likes what I have been making, my husband has said that he’ll try anything I put in front of him. 🙂 Now that is pretty brave for such a previously picky guy. He doesn’t want to stifle my creativity or my ability to be diverse in what recipes I share, so I’ve been trying my hand at more and more pork recipes. He’s been LOVING them, lol. Can you imagine, thinking you don’t like something for all this time, then suddenly realizing how tasty it actually is?! He did this with guacamole and sour cream and I think even cream cheese, too. I love that man!
But first, I wanted to point out that there actually is a difference between pork loin and pork tenderloin. I honestly had no idea about this until recently.
What is the difference between pork loin and pork tenderloin?
A pork loin is a very large 8-10 pound slab of meat. A pork tenderloin is much smaller, at 1.5-3 pounds. The pork tenderloin is also much leaner, with little to no fat, similar to a chicken breast. I always thought that the two were interchangeable. Like pork loin, is someone being lazy and leaving the “tender” part of “tenderloin out. Nope, apparently not. They are two completely different cuts. I have a feeling you weren’t going to go and try to buy a big 10 pound slab of meat to stuff into your 6 quart slow cooker, but in case you were, lol, now you know not to.
And here’s a quick 45 second video, showing you the steps of this recipe. Please take a moment to share this recipe and video on Facebook and Pinterest!
Slow Cooker Pork Tenderloin & Veggies
Ingredients
- 2 lb pork tenderloin
- 1 1/2 lb baby new potatoes
- 1 lb baby carrots
- 1 red onion
- 4 tsp minced garlic
- 1/2 cup apple butter
- 1/3 cup Dijon mustard
- 1/3 cup soy sauce
- 1 cup beef broth
- Salt & pepper to taste
Instructions
- Chop onion
- Place pork tenderloin, potatoes, carrots & onion into slow cooker
- In bowl, whisk together garlic, apple butter, dijon mustard, soy sauce, broth, salt & pepper
- Pour into slow cooker
- Cook on LOW 8-10 hours or HIGH 4-6 hours
Freezer Bag Instructions:
- Chop onion
- Place pork tenderloin, carrots & onion into gallon size freezer safe bag
- In bowl, whisk together garlic, apple butter, dijon mustard, soy sauce, broth, salt & pepper, add into gallon size freezer safe bag
- Label & lay flat to freeze
- Remove from freezer the night before you plan to cook
- Place contents of bag into slow cooker
- Add washed baby new potatoes to slow cooker
- Cook on LOW 8-10 hours or high 4-6 hours
Notes
Nutrition
David says
One question. If you freeze the recipe as instructed, it isn’t clear to me how you then cook it.
It says to remove the frozen bag of contents from the freezer the night before you want to cook it and put it in the slow cooker. If you then turn on the cooker for 4-6 hours the food will be ready in the middle of the night. Did you mean to say that you take the frozen contents and put them in the refrigerator until morning and then put them in the crock pot? Or do you put the contents in the cooker to thaw overnight and then turn on the cooker in the morning?
Sarah says
Hi David, I will often leave it on my counter overnight to thaw. But… you CAN do it just in the fridge. If all else fails, you can cook it from frozen, but add at least an extra hour on, preferably on high for the first hour if possible.