There's Ellie posing with some of the last fresh herbs from my garden: parsley, sage and rosemary.

I’m determined to keep the promise I made to myself to cook healthy and delicious things in between the parties, holiday foods and gift making. Here’s a comforting recipe that falls along those lines and has lots of flavor from the use of garlic and plenty of fresh herbs in the form of parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme. (The song is stuck in your head now, isn’t it?)

Ellie Krieger is my “heathy eating with great taste” heroine, and this brilliant recipe for Roasted Pork Loin with Parsley-Shallot Sauce is from her terrific cookbook The Food You Crave, which I’d highly recommend adding to your cookbook collection if you don’t already own a copy. I’ve made a lot of her recipes, which are always good, and have used many of her ideas and techniques to lighten up other recipes as well. For this light and fresh tasting pork recipe I substitute bone-in well trimmed pork loin chops, because we rarely make a roast for just the two of us. The herb and garlic rub makes the most fragrant and delicious chops—the smell of them cooking will drive you wild, and they have the added bonus of cooking much quicker than a roast. Her zesty and lively parsley sauce is a must with the chops and I think it’s good with baked or roasted chicken and roasted potatoes, too. I’ve scaled back the rub ingredients to accommodate just the two chops, but even so, I do usually make a full recipe of this lovely green sauce just so I can have more on hand for later! I’ve found it will keep in the fridge for 3-4 days.

Here’s my adaptation for the pork chops and a half recipe of the sauce to go with it, and you can find Ellie’s original recipe at the link above. Enjoy!

Herb Rubbed Pork Loin Chops with Parsley Shallot Sauce (Based on Ellie Krieger’s Recipe)
Serves 2, and can be doubled. 

Rub for the chops:
2- 8 oz. well trimmed bone-in pork loin chops
1 clove of garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of finely chopped fresh sage
1 teaspoon of finely chopped fresh rosemary
1 teaspoon of finely chopped fresh thyme
1/4 teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon of olive oil

Parsley Shallot Sauce:
3/4 cup loosely packed fresh italian parsley
1 Tablespoon coarsely chopped shallot
1 1/2 Tablespoons dijon mustard
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 Tablespoon water
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice (I usually put a little more)
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
Fresh ground black pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mash the garlic with the salt on a cutting board, using the flat side of your knife blade to make a coarse paste. Transfer the paste to a small bowl and add the sage, rosemary, thyme, pepper and olive oil, and stir well to combine. Rub both sides of the chops evenly with the herb mixture and place them in a glass baking dish. Cook for about 30-35 minutes until just cooked through, then remove from the oven and cover with foil to rest about 5-10 minutes.

For the parsley sauce, combine all of the sauce ingredients into a blender or food processor and puree. Serve with the chops.