300 Low-Carb Slow Cooker Recipes (31 page)

2 tablespoons (28 ml) olive oil

1/2 teaspoon chicken bouillon concentrate

1 pinch pepper

1/3 cup (45 g) pine nuts

First, slice your pork loin down one long side, cutting it almost all the way through, so you can open it up like a book. Open it up, place it with the inside down on your cutting board, and salt and pepper the outside surface.

In your big, heavy skillet, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Lay the pork, outside down, in the hot oil. You're browning the outside a bit.

While that's happening, drain your spinach very well—I dump mine into a colander in the sink and then use clean hands to squeeze it dry. Put it in a big mixing bowl. Now go check your pork! If it's nicely golden, turn off the heat.

Now go back to the mixing bowl. Add the sun-dried tomatoes, chopped pepperoncini, crushed garlic, chopped onion, and crumbled feta. Mix this all up well.

Lay three lengths of string, big enough to tie around your pork roast, on your cutting board and lay your pork, the cut, unbrowned side up, on top of them. Spoon about half the spinach mixture evenly over one side and then close the other side over it. Use the string to tie your roast shut and then carefully transfer it to the slow cooker.

Mix together the lemon juice, olive oil, chicken bouillon concentrate, and pepper, stirring until the bouillon is dissolved. Pour this evenly over the roast. Cover the pot and set to low. Forget about it for 4 to 5 hours.

You'll notice you still have a bunch of spinach mixture left. Not to worry. Get a big sheet of aluminum foil and lay it out on that cutting board. Spoon the rest of the spinach mixture onto half of it, fold the other half over it, and fold up all the edges, making a nice, tight packet. Stash this in the fridge for a few hours.

About an hour before you want to serve your roast—about 4 to 5 hours after you started cooking your roast—place your packet of leftover spinach stuffing on top of the pork, replace the lid, and let the whole thing cook another hour.

Ten minutes before you're getting ready to serve, put your pine nuts in a dry skillet over medium heat and stir them until they're touched with gold. (Or just buy them already toasted, if your store has them that way.)

Pull the packet out of the slow cooker and set it aside for a moment. Use a big spatula to carefully lift out the roast and put it on a platter. Snip the strings and pull them out, discarding them. Now open your packet and pile the extra spinach around the roast.

Now it's back to that slow cooker. However you can, get the yummy lemony-olive-oil-y juices into a pitcher or sauce dish! I used two hot mitts, picked up the whole crockery liner, and poured! Put the pine nuts in a little serving dish with a spoon, too.

Serve slices of the stuffed roast with a little of the extra stuffing with each slice. Pour pot juices over each serving and sprinkle with a spoonful of pine nuts.

Yield:
6 servings, each with: 298 calories, 20 g fat, 24 g protein, 6 g carbohydrate, 2 g dietary fiber, 4 g usable carbs.

Pork Slow Cooker Chili

Try this when you want to have people over after the kids' soccer game!

1 tablespoon (15 ml) olive oil

2 1/2 pounds (1.1 kg) boneless pork loin, cut into 1-inch (2.5 cm) cubes

1 can (14 1/2 ounces, or 410 g) tomatoes with green chiles

1/4 cup (40 g) chopped onion

1/4 cup (38 g) diced green bell pepper

1 clove garlic, crushed

1 tablespoon (8 g) chili powder

In a big, heavy skillet, heat the oil and brown the pork all over. Transfer the pork to your slow cooker. Stir in the tomatoes, onion, pepper, garlic, and chili powder. Cover the slow cooker, set it to low, and let it cook for 6 to 8 hours.

Serve this with sour cream and shredded Monterey Jack cheese, if you like, but it's darned good as is.

Yield:
8 servings, each with: 189 calories, 8 g fat, 25 g protein, 3 g carbohydrate, 1 g dietary fiber, 2 g usable carbs.

Orange and Tomatillo Pork Chili

2 pounds (900 g) pork loin

1 tablespoon (15 g) bacon grease

1 medium onion

1 jalapeño pepper

1 pound (455 g) tomatillos, husks removed

1 can (14 ounces, or 390 g) diced tomatoes

1 can (15 ounces, 425 g) Eden Organic black soy beans

4 cloves garlic

2 teaspoons grated orange rind

2 tablespoons (28 ml) orange juice

1/4 cup (60 ml) lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon orange extract

1 tablespoon (1.5 g) Splenda or the equivalent in another sugar-free sweetener

1/2 cup (8 g) chopped fresh cilantro

12 fluid ounces (355 ml) light beer

Cut your pork in bite-sized cubes. In your big, heavy skillet, over medium-high heat, start browning your pork cubes in the bacon grease. Don't crowd them; do them in a few batches, transferring them to the slow cooker as they're done. Add more bacon grease if you need to.

While the pork is browning, chop your onion and seed and mince your jalapeño. Add these to the slow cooker. (Then wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water, or you'll be sorry the next time you touch your eyes or nose. You must always wash your hands well after handling hot peppers.) Husk your tomatillos, cut them in quarters, and throw those in, too.

Add the diced tomatoes, undrained. Drain your soybeans and add them to the pot.

Now grate your orange rind and squeeze 2 tablespoons (28 ml) of orange juice. Mix the rind and orange juice with the lemon juice, orange extract, Splenda or other sweetener, cilantro, and beer. Pour this mixture over everything in the slow cooker.

Cover, set cooker to low, and let it go for a good 7 to 8 hours. You can serve with sour cream, if you like, but it's good as is.

Yield:
6 servings, each with: 224 calories, 8 g fat, 21 g protein, 13 g carbohydrate, 2 g dietary fiber, 11 g usable carbs.

Slow Cooker Mu Shu Pork

This isn't authentic, by any means, but it's very tasty. My husband, not a big Chinese food guy, really liked this.

2 plums, pitted and chopped

1 clove garlic, crushed

2 tablespoons (16 g) grated ginger root

1/4 cup (60 ml) soy sauce

2 tablespoons (28 ml) dry sherry

2 teaspoons dark sesame oil

1/8 teaspoon five-spice powder

1 tablespoon (15 ml) rice vinegar

3 tablespoons (4.5 g) Splenda

2 pounds (900 g) boneless pork loin, cut into a few big chunks across the grain

Guar or xanthan

5 eggs, beaten

2 cups (208 g) bean sprouts

2 cups (150 g) shredded napa cabbage

16 low-carb tortillas, 6-inch

3/4 cup (75 g) sliced scallions

Hoisin Sauce
(optional, see recipe
page 337
)

Put the plums, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, sherry, sesame oil, five-spice powder, vinegar, and Splenda in a food processor with the
S
-blade in place and run until the plum is puréed.

Place the pork in your slow cooker. Pour the plum sauce over the pork. Cover the slow cooker, set it to low, and let it cook for 7 to 8 hours.

When the time's up, scoop out the pork with a slotted spoon and put it on a big plate. Use a couple of forks to tear the pork into little shreds. Thicken the sauce in the slow cooker to about ketchup consistency with guar or xanthan. Stir the shredded pork back into the slow cooker. Re-cover the slow cooker, set it to high, and let it cook for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, spray a big, heavy skillet well with nonstick cooking spray. (A nonstick skillet is even better for this.) Put it over medium-high heat and let it get hot. Pour in enough of the eggs to form a thin layer on the bottom and let it cook, not stirring, until it's a solid sheet. Lift the eggs out and set them on a plate. Cook the rest of the eggs into a thin sheet as well. Use a sharp knife to cut these sheets of cooked egg into strips about 1/4 inch (6 millimeters) wide. Reserve.

When the 30 minutes are up, stir the bean sprouts, cabbage, and shredded eggs into the pork mixture. Re-cover the slow cooker and let it cook for just another 10 to 15 minutes. (You want the bean sprouts to be hot through but still have some crispness.) While that's happening, slice your scallions. (If you're not going to be eating all of this right away, only slice enough scallions for immediate use.)

To serve, spread 1/3 cup (85 g) of the pork-and-egg-and-vegetable mixture on a tortilla, sprinkle with sliced scallions, wrap, and eat! If you want to be more authentic, you could spread a little
Hoisin Sauce
on each tortilla before filling, but it's hardly essential.

Yield:
16 servings, each with: 175 calories, 8 g fat, 19 g protein, 14 g carbohydrate, 9 g dietary fiber, 5 g usable carbs.

Slow Cooker Pulled Pork

Pulled pork is a Carolina tradition, and it usually involves many, many hours of long, slow smoking. This is not authentic, but it is tasty, and thanks to liquid smoke flavoring, it has an appealingly smoky flavor. This recipe requires a meat injector, a big, scary-looking syringe that looks like your doctor got way out of hand. You can buy inexpensive ones at housewares stores.