Pork Tenderloin Medallions with Strawberry Sauce

I'm learning to be single. Not newly-single — that was the Jason period, the raw period, the period of breakup grief and recovery. This is the settled-single period, the phase where single stops being a condition and starts being a state, the way Alaska is a state — chosen, committed to, full of beauty and challenge and the particular loneliness that comes with living in a place where the isolation is both the problem and the gift.

I'm thirty-one. Single. Childless. These words have different weights depending on who's holding them. For Lourdes, they're a crisis — "thirty-one and no husband" is, in her framework, a medical emergency requiring immediate intervention in the form of church-adjacent matchmaking and strategically placed nephews of friends. For Dr. Reeves, they're neutral — "you are where you are." For me, they're somewhere in between — not a crisis, not neutral, but a question, the kind of question that lives in the background of a life and surfaces at 2 AM after a shift, in the dark, in the kitchen, when the stove light is the only company.

The blog helps. The blog is the place where single is not a problem but a perspective — the perspective of a woman cooking for one, writing about food, finding community through a screen. The readers who cook alone, who eat alone, who find the blog at midnight because they're standing in their kitchens wondering why they're making adobo for no one — those readers are my community. The community of alone. The together-in-alone.

I made dinuguan — pork blood stew, the dark, rich, challenging dish. Not everyone loves dinuguan. The blood is an obstacle for the uninitiated, the darkness of the stew unsettling, the flavor profile deeply savory and slightly metallic and entirely, unapologetically Filipino. I love dinuguan because it doesn't apologize. It doesn't soften itself for a wider audience. It is what it is — dark, rich, difficult, rewarding — and the people who love it love it completely. I am learning to be dinuguan. Dark, rich, difficult, rewarding. The people who love me love me completely. The rest don't need to try.

I made dinuguan for the blog, but I made these pork tenderloin medallions for me—for the version of me that Dr. Reeves keeps reminding is exactly where she needs to be. There’s something about a beautiful cut of pork, seared properly and finished with something unexpected and bright, that feels like a quiet act of self-respect: the kind of meal you make when you’ve decided you’re worth the effort, even alone at 9 PM on a Tuesday. The strawberry sauce is the part that surprised me—sweet and a little sharp, the way good things often are—and it reminded me that difficult flavors and tender ones can share the same plate without either one apologizing.

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 20 min | Total Time: 35 min | Servings: 4

Ingredients

1 pork tenderloin (about 1 lb), trimmed
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 shallot, finely minced
1/2 cup fresh or frozen strawberries, hulled and halved
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon honey
1/4 cup low-sodium chicken broth
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves (or 1/4 teaspoon dried)

Instructions

Slice and season. Cut the trimmed pork tenderloin crosswise into 1-inch medallions. Pat dry with paper towels, then season both sides evenly with salt, pepper, and garlic powder.
Sear the medallions. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add medallions in a single layer without crowding and sear 3–4 minutes per side until golden-brown and cooked through (internal temp 145°F). Transfer to a plate and tent loosely with foil.
Build the sauce base. Reduce heat to medium. Add butter and shallot to the same skillet and cook, stirring, about 2 minutes until softened and fragrant.
Add strawberries and deglaze. Add the strawberries and balsamic vinegar, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Cook 2–3 minutes until strawberries begin to break down.
Finish the sauce. Stir in honey, chicken broth, and thyme. Simmer 3–4 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the sauce reduces slightly and coats the back of a spoon. Taste and adjust seasoning.
Serve. Arrange pork medallions on plates and spoon the strawberry sauce generously over the top. Serve immediately alongside roasted vegetables, mashed potatoes, or steamed rice.

Nutrition (per serving)

Pork Tenderloin Medallions with Strawberry Sauce — For the Woman Who Doesn’t Apologize