Meal 16: Pork Chop with Chips & Cannellini Beans in a Spicy Sauce

A 10″ plate full – just enough for me but probably enough for 2 ladies! The pork chop is broken up because cooking for 7 hours in a slow cooker makes the meat so tender that it just falls apart!
CALORIE DENSITY: 16% = 746kcal/(1133ml x 4)
(Compare with Sugar: 95%, butter: 180%)
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COST: £1.36 (So don’t tell me that eating healthy food is expensive!)
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INGREDIENTS
  • Pork Chops (167g): 180kcal(150ml) Iceland 6 Pork Chops 1000g for £3.50 = 58p
  • Potatoes (400g): 300kcal (350ml) Asda Grower’s Selection British White Potatoes 2.5kg for £1.29 =21p
  • Cannellini Beans (235g): 200kcal(300ml) Asda Cannellini Beans in Water 400g Can for 50p
  • Spicey Sauce (333g): 0kcal(333ml) Home made spicey sauce = 2p
  • Potato Powder 40ml (20g): 66kcal (20ml) Asda SP Instant Mashed Potato 120g packet 28p = 5p
INSTRUCTIONS
Cooking the meat:
  1. Pour 2000ml of water into your slow cooker. Add  the following herbal flavouring powders measured in tea spoons: 6tsp Mild Curry, 3tsp Garam Masala, 3tsp Paprika, 3tsp salt, 3tsp Turmeric and 1tsp black pepper. Mix until the powders are well distributed in the water.
  2. Add the 6 pork chops making sure they are completely covered by the liquid.
  3. Leave for a few hours to defrost then cook for 7 hours on low. I use a timer to turn the slow cooker on at 1:30 BST which is when my half price Economy 7 electricity kicks in! Note the pictures at the bottom of the page. The timer automatically turns off at 8:30 in the morning and I let the slow cooker cool down until noon.
  4. Using a draining spoon divide the pork chops into 6 plastic containers suitable for storing in the fridge.
  5. Add a packet of potato powder to the slow cooker to thicken the cooked-in sauce (gravy) and mix it in well,
  6. Add equally to the plastic containers (should be enough to just cover each pork chop) and put the containers in the fridge when they are cold.

Cooking the potatoes

  1. Weigh out 400g of potato and cut into chips – the thinner they are the quicker they cook.
  2. Place the chips in a plastic container suitable for the microwave.
  3. Mix ½tsp (teaspoon) turmeric, ½tsp salt & ⅛tsp black pepper in a small pot.
  4. Shake onto the chips in the container as you shake the container, fix on the lid and then shake the container violently.
  5. Microwave at 800W for 10 minutes. Shake the container after 5 minutes to keep the chips from sticking together and shake again after 10 minutes.

Preparing a meal

  1. Place a pork chop in the middle of a 10″ plate.
  2. Drain the water from the can of cannellini beans and put them in a small bowl.
  3. Mix in some of the gravy from a pork chop container.
  4. Pour the mixture of beans & gravy around the chop on the plate.
  5. Microwave at 800W for 4 minutes.
  6. Add the chips around the edge of the plate & microwave for another 2 minutes.
  7. If necessary add salt and black pepper to taste and serve.
This is an enormous meal – just right for me – but it’s probably enough for 2 ladies! Don’t waste the rest of the gravy – heat it up for a minuts in a small dish and dip your chips into it as you eat them! If you’re making a meal for more than one person and need more potatoes add an extra minute in the microwave for each extra 100g.
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I add turmeric to the sauce because it has excellent anti-cancer properties which are enhanced by the presence of black pepper. I add turmeric & black pepper to the potatoes to make them look browned like fried chips.
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This meal tastes equally delicious with any of the pulses although I have to say that chickpeas are my favourite! The ones I regularly use are: chickpeas, butter beans, cannellini beans, borlotti beans, haricot beans, pinto beans, black-eyed beans, black beans and kidney beans.
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Use a timer to run a slow cooker overnight

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