I had a revelation recently – pork shoulder is super versatile, makes superb leftovers, and can be ready in a jiffy in the Instant Pot. Who could ask for more?

The beauty of the pork shoulder roast is in how many different ways you can serve it. Cook once, eat all week. You can have it sliced like pot roast, pulled pork style with or without BBQ sauce, or crisped like carnitas.

Instant Pork Shoulder:

• 3-5 pound bone in shoulder roast
• 1 tablespoon bacon or other fat
• 1 diced onion
• 3-5 cloves garlic
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1 tablespoon cumin
• 1 tablespoon smoked paprika
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• 1 cup water

Turn the instant pot on to sauté mode and melt the fat. Meanwhile cut the roast into more manageable chunks and place them in your instant pot to sear.

Flip the pork a few times then add the onion, garlic, spices and cup of water and set for high pressure at 90 minutes. Note, the pork will be cooked fully well before that time, but the longer cooking time makes the meat easily shreddable.

Once the time is up, you can do a quick release and serve, or let it naturally release while you finish up other things. The spice mix I used was versatile enough that you could eat this as pulled pork, Kalua pork, sliced pork roast or my personal favorite, shredded and fried crispy carnitas style.

This makes a substantial amount of pork, which is lovely to have on hand and fits well into keto dishes.

Speaking of which, I’m still going strong on my keto experiment. I finished the 3rd week and have now lost 8.2 pounds. I’m nearly at my original goal of ten pounds, but a dress I was hoping to fit in again is seeming like I’ll need to lose five more beyond that. In general though, my clothes are more comfortable. I feel happy, relaxed and productive. I’m cooking a lot but find it’s simpler less recipe shareable stuff. I’m also getting tired of dry January now that it’s been over three weeks and wonder how well keto will go if I allow a glass of wine here and there. Something more to experiment with!