Pork Roast and dumplings is one of my childhood memories. Sometimes mom would stuff the roast with garlic, and other times it was seasoned with rosemary or other herbs. I wish I could say we made the dumplings from scratch, but the box mix was so handy, quick, and tasty that I have never attempted to make them any other way. Unfortunately, the company no longer makes them as a mix, so Mom and I will have to develop our own from scratch recipe. I will post when it is perfected!

Upgrade Tools Needed

  • Dutch oven, or other lidded oven safe container
  • Meat thermometer

Ingredients

  • Pork Roast (sirloin tip roast about 1-2 lbs is what I use most often)
  • ​Rosemary, prefer fresh but you can use dried
  • Salt
  • Olive Oil, or other cooking oil

NOTE: The dumplings were made with a package mix that is no longer available. Looks like I will have to try making them from scratch and post my recipe once I have it down.

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. If using fresh rosemary, remove the leaves from the sprigs and gather in a mound on your cutting board.
  3. Finely chop the rosemary. I am using a Greek Mezzaluna, my favorite tool for chopping up herbs.
    Note: If using dried you may want to pulse in a spice grinder with some salt.
  4. Place your roast on a cutting board and pat dry with a paper towel.
  5. Coat all sides of the pork with salt, and a sprinkle of rosemary.
  6. Heat your dutch oven, or other oven safe lidded pot, on the stove with a drizzle of cooking oil on medium-high heat.
  7. Starting with what you consider is the top of the roast, sear off all sides of the meat.
    Note: you are looking for some browning on the meat. When the meat is ready to turn, it will release easily from the pan.
  8. When you place the roast on the last side to sear, turn off the heat. Add as much of the remaining rosemary to the top of the roast as you like.
  9. Add a small amount of water to the pan. Be careful as the water will boil immediately.
  10. Cover the roast, place on the bottom rack of your oven, and cook until internal temperature reaches 145-160 degrees. For the 2 lbs I cooked, this was about 30-40 minutes.
  11. Once the roast is finished, remove from the oven, make a package out of tin foil to seal in the heat, and set the meat aside to rest, give it 3-5 minus, unwrap and enjoy.
Optional for dumplings:
  1. While the meat roasts, prepare the dumplings. If using a mix, follow the recipe but only half cook the dumplings (for my mix that was boiling them for about 10 minutes).
  2. Add the dumplings and a bit of their cooking water into the roasting pan, and put back into the oven for the remainder of their cooking time. For me this was 10 minutes.
  3. Once the dumplings are finished, remove, cover with plastic wrap to keep them warm.
Optional for gravy:
  1. I added the rest of the cooking water from the dumplings into the dutch oven to make my gravy, but if you don't make dumplings, add just enough water to help deglaze the pan. You can add any of the left over rosemary at this point to add extra flavor.
  2. Place the dutch oven back on the stove top, and reduce down the dumpling water.
    Note: when reducing, be sure to taste to be sure the salt left from the pork or the dumpling water does not condense too much. If you taste and it is too salty, add a bit more water and stop reducing.
  3. Add small amounts of flour to thicken the mixture as it simmers until you have the consistency you like. I sprinkle it on top and whisk briskly to incorporate the flour before I add more. Make sure to let it cook for a couple minutes after you add the last of the flour to be sure it all gets cooked.
    ​TIP: You could make a rue in advance to thicken your gravy by cooking 1 TBSP each of flour and butter together in a small pan while you are waiting for the roast to cook. Then all you do is dump the rue into the sauce, whisk until it is combined, and let it simmer to thicken. With this method, the flour is already cooked so as soon as the     gravy is the thickness you like, you can turn off the heat and serve.​
Customize to your tastes:
  • Add salt and pepper to taste.
  • Change the rosemary out for other herbs you enjoy.
  • Change out the dumplings for roasted potatoes or vegetables that can cook at the same time as the roast.

Packaging the Leftovers, and Reheating

  • When I am craving this meal, I normally make it and eat all the portions over the course of a week, so I haven't tried one as a freezer meal yet. I did freeze one package after this most recent cooking, and it reheated just fine.
  • I am using the container with 2 sections for this meal. I put 4 dumplings in the larger section, and then a portion of meat in the small portion, and added the gravy over the meat. This helps keep the meat moist on the reheat, and I can always dip the dumplings into the gravy.
  • ​At work, I pop the top of the container to allow the steam to escape, but leave the lid in place for splatter, and microwave for about 2 minutes. I will have to turn the dumplings over, and stir the gravy, and then microwave for about 2 minutes more. Check and see if everything is warm, and add a minute at a time so you don't overcook.
​last updated 11/9/2020
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