Spring is shifting into summer, but I love when it’s cold outside, mostly because of the food! Perfect time of year to make pork roast is when it’s cold outside and you don’t mind your oven running for several hours. To be honest though, I’ve been known to make this during the summer, more than once!

This is my recipe for making a “stuffed” pork roast. ONCE AGAIN… I failed to get a final result photo. But I did put a photo of another one I cooked and how that came out ?

I like the pork shoulder roast because the fat layer bastes the roast, but you could do this with any pork roast. Start by preheating your oven to 375 and prepping a pan. I like to use the toss away pans for easier cleanup. Once it’s cleaned, coat the bottom with cooking spray and a layer of salt. I also add crushed red pepper.

Now get your roast out of the packaging. These usually come vacuum-sealed (I believe this one was about 8 or 9 pounds). Put it skin side down in the pan and trim off anything that looks undesirable. Leave the knife in the pan and focus on the veggies.

The normal veggies would be onion, garlic, and bell peppers, but you can use whatever you have on hand: roasted red peppers, green onions, any type of herb, spicy peppers… it’s all up to you. I used onion, garlic, green pepper, and thyme.

The best (fastest) way to get these cut down is to use a little food chopper. Cut the onion and bell pepper into smaller chunks and toss them in the food chopper. Let it do all the work for you and just dump the small pieces into a bowl. It is ok if this mixture has liquid from the veggies in it.

Once you have everything chopped, add a bunch of salt & cayenne pepper (or whatever pepper you use). This is going to season the roast, so be very generous.

With your large knife, cut slits into the roast at various places and stuff the veggie mixture in. Do the top and the sides. Do not worry about the bottom where the fat layer is and do not worry about using all the veggies. You actually want to have some left over.

Once you have enough stuffed spots, flip the roast over and score gridlines into the fat. Once you’ve done that, pour the remaining veggie mixture on the fat and rub it in. It is ok if some falls into the pan. Then spray the entire roast with a generous coating of cooking spray. This will help keep the foil from sticking to the roast.

Add about 2 cups of water to the bottom and cover with foil. Put in the oven and cook for 1 hour at 375 then turn down to 300 for about 4 more hours.

NOTE: If you want to add potatoes, start peeling them about an hour and a half before done time. Cut into large pieces and add to the pan. Please make sure you season them – potatoes soak up a lot of salt – and add more liquid. Recover the roast and let the potatoes cook with the roast for the remaining time.

Serve with sides of choice (I prefer rice and either rolls or biscuits).

Let me know what you think in the comments!

Ingredients:

• 1 onion
• 1 green bell pepper
• 3 cloves of garlic
• Several sprigs of thyme
• Pork shoulder roast, 8 or 9 pounds
• Water
• Seasoning to taste

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375.
2. Prep pan and spray with cooking spray. Season with salt & crushed red pepper.
3. Take roast out of packaging and place skin-side down in the pan and trim.
4. Chop all veggies in food chopper and dump into a bowl.
5. Add salt & cayenne pepper (or your seasonings of choice).