Heritage Pork Roast (Crock Pot)

WI Cheesehead's Note:

From the Essential Slow Cooker Recipes cookbook. Made with sweet potato, onions and apples. Mmmm!

• Total Time: 7 hrs 20 mins
• Prep Time: 20 mins
• Cook Time: 7 hrs

Ingredients:

Servings: 6

• 1/2 cup apple juice or 1/2 cup apple cider
• 1 1/2 lbs sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced 1 inch thick
• 3 medium onions, sliced and separated into rings
• 4 medium apples, peeled, cored and sliced
• 1 (2 lb) center cut pork roast, trimmed of fat
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 4 fresh sage leaves, snipped or 1/8 teaspoon dried sage
• 1/4 cup cold water
• 1 teaspoon brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch

Directions:

1. Pour the apple juice into the crock pot.
2. Then layer the sweet potatoes, onions and apples in the crock pot.
3. In a nonstick skillet, brown the pork on all sides over medium-high heat.
4. Place the pork on top of the potato and apple slices.
5. Brush the mustard over the roast and sprinkle the roast with the pepper and sage.
6. Cover and cook on LOW until the roast is done and registers 165°F (73.9°C) on a quick reading meat thermometer, 7 to 9 hours.
7. Transfer the roast to a platter and keep it warm.
8. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the apple-sweet potato mixture to a bowl and keep it warm.
9. Combine the water, sugar and cornstarch in a measuring cup. Stir the cornstarch mixture into the juices in the crock pot and cook on high, stirring often, until they thicken, 1 to 2 minutes.
10. Serve gravy over the roast and apple-potato mixture.

Reviews

[Chef #724075]

This is an exceptionally good recipe. I thought the sweet potatoes would be mush after 9 hrs of cooking, but they were perfect! I will make this again, but will try to thicken the gravy with Wondra flour rather than cornstarch (a personal preference). chef 7240751

[grunig]

The meat was good but we did not care for the "gravy" at all. We may try this again substituting roasting potatoes for the sweet potatoes. The seasoning for the meat was great though.

[angie_pangie]

This really was outstanding! The adults in my family loved this - it has a nice flavor combination, we really liked the sweet potato/onion combination. The apples were good, too, and a nice compliment to the dish. I made this exactly as written with the exception of using a 4 pound roast. It took a lot less than the 7-9 hours listed in my (fairly) hot crockpot. This was a little more work than I typically like to do when I'm making a crockpot dish, but in the end it was well worth it! My picky kids wouldn't touch this (no suprise there) and even my veg loving daughter turned up her nose at it. It was just a little too different for younger kids. That's o.k. with me, my husband and I will be fighting over the leftovers on this one tomorrow! Thank you WI Cheesehead for a great recipe.