Introduction
With many of our lives being busy these days, I think it’s important to make time to make and enjoy truly good food. With that in mind, it’s also more difficult than ever to make time to cook great, home-cooked meals.
Throw into this situation that, despite not many of our incomes going up in the recent years, the cost of goods has been going up. So, how do we go about making great meals that also don’t break the bank?
This is something I’ve been doing for years, first as a student and now as an educator and writer who likes to eat well for cheap. Today, I want to share my recipe for a slow-cooker pork roast.
Tools and Ingredients
To make this roast, you’ll need:
- A Slow Cooker
- A Meat Thermometer
- 1 Pork Roast (1 Lb per person/serving before cooking is a good rule of thumb)
- Salt
- Pepper
- Italian Seasoning
Cooking Process
This recipe couldn’t get much simpler, and that’s the point considering I made this for a weekday night on the heels of a 14-hour workday.
To get things ready, pat the roast dry, adding salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning. My slow cooker, like most, has a removable ceramic cooking vessel, which I used to store the seasoned roast overnight in the fridge.
In the morning, simply pull the roast and vessel out of the fridge, pop it in the slow cooker, and put it on the lowest setting. Go to work and do your thing. When you get home, I recommend sticking a meat thermometer in for a moment to make sure that the pork is up to the safe 165 degrees that the FDA recommended temperature, though I don’t think this will be an issue at all here.
As a side note, the version I suggest here is somewhat of a budget version: if you want to spend a little more on spices, a rub of brown sugar, cumin, paprika, salt, and pepper can bring some more depth to the table, especially if you like things spicy and you also add some red pepper flakes.
Sides, Pairing, and Serving
When I made this, I paired it with corn on the cob done simply in the air fryer: that, and a beer makes for a good, simple, and highly fulfilling meal after a long day that also doesn’t take much cleanup.
If I was doing this on the weekend and had a little more time, I would also consider adding in a baked potato or, if you were feeling adventurous, some home-made fries, preferably deep friend and cajun seasoned to add some depth and spice to the meal.
Aside from a lager or IPA, I’d also recommend going for a white wine with this: the relatively light seasoning on the pork can get overwhelmed with heavy-flavored red wines.
Ideally, you can put an excellent pork roast on the table with about fifteen minutes of effort, and let the slow cooker do all of the work to get you and your family an excellent, affordable meal.