Why Pork Tenderloin Soup In 30 Minutes?
Honestly? Tuesday night. Kid’s homework screaming, dog needing walking, laundry piling up. Saw “30-minute pork tenderloin soup” online and thought, “Yeah right, probably tastes like dishwater.” But desperate times… Grabbed the last pork tenderloin chunk from the freezer this morning.
Got home starving, kitchen cold. Clock ticking: 5:45 PM. Dumped that still-half-frozen pork loin onto the cutting board. Chopped it ugly – thin slices, thick chunks, whatever. Who cares? It’s gonna boil anyway. Tossed the mess into my biggest pot with zero oil.
Fired up the burner cranked HIGH. Started smashing garlic cloves with the flat of my knife – skins on, off, whatever stuck. Threw em in with the pork. Found a sad-looking onion in the veggie drawer. Peeled roughly, hacked it into uneven pieces. In it went. Grabbed random seasonings: dusty paprika, generic “Italian blend”, salt mountain, pepper avalanche. Shook them over the pot like I was angry at it.
Stirred that pork-gluey mess for maybe… two minutes? Tasted like hot raw onion. Okay, added water straight from the tap, enough to nearly float the disaster. Slammed the lid on, cranked heat to volcano mode. Waited… sorta cleaned up onion skins. Fifteen minutes crawled by. Peeked. Pork turned whitish, water cloudy, smelled kinda like soup? Progress?
Hacked some limp carrots into coins. Found half a bag of frozen peas buried in the freezer frost. Threw everything into the murky brew. Slammed lid again. Timer blared after ten minutes. Fish-eye checked a carrot coin with my grimy finger. Mushy? Good enough. Killed the heat.
Poured it straight from pot into chipped bowls. Looked like cat puke – greyish broth, carrots too orange, peas floating like pond scum. Tasted a spoonful. Hot, salty, vaguely porky… not dishwater! Actually… fine? Kiddo dunked crackers in it, complained about peas but ate it. Mission accomplished? Clock said 6:10 PM.
Real Talk Takeaways:
- Half-frozen pork chops fine. Ugly cuts save time.
- “Seasoning blend” usually means “salt”. Taste later.
- Limp veggies taste okay after boiling hell out of em.
- “30 minutes” means pushing FAST like a kitchen maniac.
- Tastes better than it looks. Usually.
- My kid still prefers instant noodles.
