Paleo Cuban Meat Sandwich

paleo cuban meat sandwich

Have you ever tasted this super special, amazingly yummy sandwich called The Cuban? It’s a toasted sandwich with honey mustard, pickles, ham, pork loin and swiss. We have been to Miami and tried to source the best Cuban sandwich we could find…and we have also frequented Publix supermarket for its Cuban sub as a meal in a hurry. Well….here is our version, sans bread and tons of sugar. We call this a meat sandwich since we’ve got a pork tenderloin stuffed with ham and seared in bacon fat. We served this with sweet potatoes we had previously roasted, scooped out the insides and put in the freezer. Just add some cinnamon and orange zest and nuke in the microwave to re-heat.

Ingredients

  • 1 pork tenderloin, about 1 1/2 lbs.
  • 1/2 lb. thinly sliced deli ham
  • 1/4 lb. swiss cheese, optional
  • 1/2 c. dill pickles, sliced into long strips
  • 4 T yellow mustard
  • 2 T honey
  • S&P

Method

Get your oven to 450ºF.

Look at your pork and you’ll likely see a sliver of skin that’s silver in color. That’s called the “silver skin” …it should be removed with your knife. Don’t worry about all the fat, that will cook away, but DO DO DO remove the silver skin. Salt and pepper both sides of the pork.

Mix together the honey and mustard in a small bowl.

This is the easy part, in whatever fashion you’d like, layer the ham, cheese and honey mustard into the pork loin.  When you’ve gotten about half way through, add the pickle slices (going long ways). Make sure to put the pickles long ways so when you slice the meat, you get a little bit in every bite. I suggest putting the pickles in half way through the stuffing process because otherwise it’s likely to cause the pork loin to be over stuffed and not roll up properly. Once you’re finished, roll the pork up. Using about 4 pieces of butcher’s twine, tie the pork together–don’t worry about the ends.

Sear the pork loin over medium high heat (in an oven safe pan) in a bit of fat, until you see a nice brown crust on both sides.  Stick the pan in the oven and cook until the center of the pork loin measures 140ºF– about 25 minutes. Let it rest for around 10 minutes, then slice and serve. You may want to make another batch of honey mustard to serve as a dipping sauce.


Comments

21 responses to “Paleo Cuban Meat Sandwich”

  1. Mmmmmm. Pork 3-way.

  2. This thing is freakin’ good. I was having a hard time not eating what I was slicing off for supper. I still kinda like the pork 3-way name tho.

  3. Made it for lunch today, it was great!! My co-workers loved it too, so I directed them to the website for this and more yummy ideas.
    Unleashing it on the kids next….

    1. please tell me you didn’t do this in your office! that would be out-of-control!

      1. I did. We have a fully functioning kitchen and when I have time I like to mess around a bit in there.
        BTW – the kids loved it too!!!
        Thanks for all you guys are doing.

  4. this not only looks delicious, but you also did a wonderful job with the lay out or your post. We’ll have to give this dish a definite try. Thanks!

  5. David Lindeman

    So the three of us bachelors tried (well, I tried, they watched) to filet this tenderloin properly with no avail; it came out kind of messy. Anywho, followed the rest of the directions except for the part where you need butcher’s twine, missed that bit :/ So it became this cubano mess as I plopped it on the baking sheet (oh yeah, didn’t sear it either:/) but boy oh boy did we enjoy it! Plus we live in Miami (Hialeah to be exact) so we know our Cuban food and this was DELISH! Thank you, Keatleys!!!

    1. haha–i would have liked to see this! brandon’s grandmother lives down there and we’re always looking for good places. we went to OLA in january. pretty good. got any recommendations?

  6. Delicious!! Absolutely loved it 🙂

  7. This was fantastic. Thanks!

  8. glad you enjoyed your pigstravaganza. thanks stacy.

  9. I made this tonight and my whole family loved it!! That’s rave reviews from a 5 yo, a 7 yo, and two foodie adults. 🙂

    Thank you!
    Whitney

  10. just finished rolling one of these up for tonight! used ‘hearty garlic’ claussen pickles… cant wait!

  11. how does the cheese fit paleo? no dairy, no?

  12. no – not “quote, unquote” paleo. we feel that it’s in the gray area. the foods that maybe were not available 10,000 plus years ago (though who can say for certain) but that on a molecular/macronutrient level may actually approximate the healthy characteristics of “paleo” foods more than some things that were available back then. here is an excerpt from our about page.

    “However, we’re not after a Paleo reenactment here, since by those rules grass fed beef and olive oil (for example) would not be “Paleo” (as domestication and oil extraction was likely not available/not practical for hunter gatherers). These gray area foods do not make up staples in our diet but they are included for variety and because in the Venn diagram representing Paleolithic Foods/Neolithic Foods/Agents of Disease…they do not fall squarely in the category of an “agent of disease” (based on our best interpretation of the data/information available). We feel that these foods do fit a Paleo Framework that helps us to reach the benefits of Paleolithic metabolism…while avoiding the rigor/impracticality of strict reenactment.”

    here is the Venn diagram we are referring to: http://www.archevore.com/panu-weblog/2010/3/28/the-only-reasonable-paleo-principle.html

    we try to make any dairy we use a non-essential to the recipe so it’s very easy to just leave it out and still believe it will be tasty. i hope this helps…at the end of the day it is totally your prerogative. educate yourself…it’s safe to say you can do without it quite well…and relatively safe to say you can do quite well with it. as always…it depends.

  13. Christena

    This.recipe.is.amazing! Such a great and delicious idea. Thank you!

  14. We love roll ups in our house and this recipe has inspired me to make an easy Cuban roll up for the kids lunches. Thanks so much for the inspiration!

    1. yum. can i be your kid too!??!

  15. Randy Tognoni

    I can’t wait to try this recipe but the video link is not there?

  16. This was awesome! Thank you for sharing.

  17. I made this tonight. It was delicious. I ran out of honey so I skipped that part and just usedregular yellow mustard, it wasn’t missed. I think that this will be great for leftovers, sliced and served as lettuce wraps. I just discovered this blog, and while I do not follow the paleo diet, I am defiately going to work more Paleo recipes into our repretoire if they come out as well as this did. I hope you continue to post more recipes even though you “quit” paleo.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.