My favorite season of the year is finally here! Blackberry season. I can’t even express to you how much I love blackberries. I don’t know if it’s because they remind me of my childhood and running to the side of our house and plucking blackberries right off the vine, popping them straight into my mouth. People always say that blueberries are nature’s candy, but they’ve always been blackberries for me!
Some people find that blackberries are a nuisance because they grow everywhere. They kind of take over if let them, right? I love this time of year and seeing families out on the side of the road, on the trails and even in their neighborhoods here in Washington gathering blackberries by the bowlful.
I like to think of blackberries is nature’s way of saying thank you. They simply grow everywhere. They’re essentially free fresh fruit as long as you are OK with the prickles, lots of ouchies and probably a few spiders.
So the season is upon us and while everybody is making jams, jellies and sauces, including me. After freezing a bunch as well, I wanted to try something a little different. I had over 30 cups of fresh blackberries and I decided to add my favorite summer fruit and try a bbq sauce that I could slather on some grilled pork tenderloin.
Raise your hand if you are tired of grilled chicken and steak at this point? Time to make use of the other white meat!
This blackberry barbecue sauce is easy to make 2-3 days ahead of time, stored in the refrigerator for when it’s perfect grilling time.
If you’re deciding to make it the same day as grilling, give yourself about 20 minutes total for making the barbecue sauce. Once it’s ready, start your barbecue and prepare your pork tenderloin.
Because pork tenderloin tends to be an uneven cylindrical shape, I prefer to cut it into medallions about 1 1/2 inch thick. This makes for faster grilling and makes it easier to determine doneness. It also means more BBQ sauce to bite ratio, and that is never a bad thing! Simply drizzle the pork tenderloin medallions with an oil of your choice, then season with salt, pepper and cracked dried rosemary.
Once your grill is at temperature, grill your pork medallions a few minutes each side before slathering them with barbecue sauce. Grill a couple more minutes on each side until done. For a complete dinner, I diced some potatoes and roasted those in the oven with simple seasonings and grilled sliced zucchini at the same time we were grilling the pork tenderloin.
When your pork tenderloin is complete, plate it. Garnish with more fresh blackberries and chopped cilantro. My idea of a perfect bite was to get a bite of the pork tenderloin, a little sliver of cilantro and one of the fresh blackberries, YUM! Enjoy!
Pork Tenderloin with Blackberry BBQ Sauce
Ingredients
Pork Tenderloin
- 2 Pork Tenderloins cut into 1½" mediallions
- 1 tsp canola oil
- ¼ cup fresh onion minced
- 1 tbsp fresh jalapeno minced
- 1-2 tsp dried cracked rosemary
- salt & pepper to taste
Blackberry BBQ Sauce
- 3 cups fresh blackberries rinsed and drained
- ½ cup ketchup
- 3 tbsp vinegar apple cider or rice
- ¼ cup brown sugar bourbon
- ¼ cup brown sugar packed
- 3 tbsp honey
- 2 tbsp dijon mustard
- 1½ tsp chili powder
- 1½ tsp smoked paprika
- 1 tsp garlic minced
- salt & pepper to taste
Instructions
Blackberry BBQ Sauce
- Heat the oil in medium-sized pan. Add onion and jalapeno and cook over medium heat, stirring, until onion is translucent, about 3 minutes.
- Add remaining ingredients and simmer over low heat*, stirring until thickened, about 10 minutes.
- *Puree the sauce in a blender after cooking or use an immersion hand blender directly in the pot midway through cooking.
- NOTE: You may pass sauce through a strainer to remove seeds if you wish. I didn't because they are tender at this point and not really a problem.
Grilled Pork Tenderloin Medallions
- Preheat grill to high heat.
- Slice pork tenderloin into 1½" medallions. Drizzle with oil and season with salt, pepper and dried cracked rosemary.
- Grill two minutes each side, closing the grill each time.
- Slather with prepared Blackbery BBQ Sauce, grill an additional 1-2 minutes each side until cooked to 145° or juices run clear.
- Remove from grill, plate, garnish and serve.
- Keep remaining unused BBQ Sauce in refridgerator for up to a week or freezer for a month – or just share it with friends and family!
Don’t forget to let me know if you make this recipe! Tag me on IG or Facebook @peppyfitfoodie ! Looking for some of my favorite recipes? Follow me on Pinterest as well as PeppyFitFoodie!
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