by Texas Homesteader ~ 

Who doesn’t love a hearty stew when the weather’s cold? And if you’re using leftover roast to make it, a healthy meal can be on the table for your family in minutes.

Today I’m sharing the quickest & most basic delicious leftover idea: a Hearty Stew! 

How To Cook To Assure Leftovers For Future Meals

I constantly sing praises about the benefits of planned leftovers Cooking. That’s the method of cooking when you purposely cook more of an item than you will eat at one time. 

When I cook I like to get in the kitchen, cook a lot and get the heck out! Yeah it’s true, I cook a lot, but cooking is not my favorite pastime.

In and out of the kitchen fast is my wheelhouse, y’all. Then bibbidy-bobbedy-boo presto-changeo remake any leftovers into brand new and delicious recipes.

Most recently I cooked a Huge Pork Roast using not one, not two but THREE slow cookers. Yeah, that pork roast really was was that big! 

It’s good that I’ll have so much leftover roast though. I’d planned to remake the leftovers into new dishes later in the week. (I share several leftover roast meal ideas at the end of this post, be sure to check them out!)

Storing Leftover Roast

After I cooked that huge roast I sectioned the meat off into meal-sized quantities. Then I packaged each one for the freezer making sure to properly label the contents. I mean, everything looks exactly the same when it’s frozen rock solid & crammed in the freezer #amiright?

But after all that meat was sectioned off I kept just enough back to make a hearty stew. I can whip it up in minutes using the various other leftovers from our pork roast meal.

Assembling The Stew

I’d already poured all the broth from the roast into a glass canning jar, stored it in the refrigerator to allow the fat to rise to the top the night before. So for the broth portion of today’s lunch I simply skimmed the fat away.

Then I seasoned the broth with a couple of tablespoons of my Homemade Stew Seasoning Mix to add extra flavor. 

I assembled my quick stew using various leftovers from last night’s pork roast supper: cooked leftover carrots and potatoes, cooked onions, leftover roast broth and leftover meat:

Poured defatted leftover roast broth into a pan

Chopped the leftover cooked carrots

Roughly chopped leftover cooked potatoes 

Chopped softened cooked celery

Finely chopped & added the leftover cooked onion sections

Stirred in the bits of leftover pork roast

If I have leftover canned veggie or cooked rice sides in the fridge I’ll toss them in as well. Now that it’s assembled with all the pork roast supper leftovers from last night I simply heat up this hearty stew. 

You really don’t get any faster than this, y’all. Everything was already perfectly cooked, I just needed to warm it all up!

Making this stew is a delightful way to use up some leftovers from our roast dinner yesterday in just minutes. And we get to enjoy some bone-warming nutrition as well.

What Goes With Stew?

When making stew I usually like to add bread or crackers. 

• • • Homemade Cornbread

    • Simple No-Knead Rosemary Skillet Bread

    • Homemade Buttermilk Biscuits or Easy Cheddar Sour Cream Biscuits

    • Simple Homemade Crackers

Sometimes I’ll add a side such as Flavored Rice or a healthy salad made with my 1-minute Creamy Salad Dressing. 

But oftentimes a hearty bowl of stew is all we need. So dress it up or not – a hot bowl of stew is always sure to please.

Other Fast Easy Meals With Leftover Roast

Pork roast leftovers are so versatile. There are lots of meal ideas I can make with this already-cooked roast. Here are some of my faves:

Carnitas Tacos – The meat’s already cooked! Just brown the shredded meat and toss into tortillas.

Tip: you can use flour tortillas for the carnitas tacos or easily make your own crispy taco shells with corn tortillas. 

Pulled-Pork Enchiladas – A Tex-Mex favorite here.

Pork BBQ sandwiches – Just add BBQ sauce & top fresh hamburger buns.

Tip: I make my own Mix & Pour BBQ Sauce in minutes. If I have a couple more minutes I really enjoy making Honey-Sweetened Smoky BBQ Sauce. 

So go ahead and cook that oversized roast. Then section it off & use it over the next several days to quickly get supper on the table and feed your family a hearty homemade meal in minutes.

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