Leftover Roast Pork in Garlic Sauce

Roast pork in garlic sauce cooked with broccoli and brussels sprouts in a delicious sauce.  Make it with leftover roast pork and have it ready in half an hour. There are also instructions for making with fresh pork which only takes 15 minutes longer. What are you waiting for?

Leftover roast pork in garlic sauce

When you are only cooking for 2 people there always seems to be a lot left over when you make a roast.   I find pork especially tends to dry out when left over so I devised this recipe for roast pork in garlic sauce using loads of spicy sauce and garlic.

It is absolutely delicious – juicy (not dried out) pork chunks swimming in a tasty garlic sauce, with lots of green veggies added for extra flavour. And because the veggies are cooked in the sauce they are chockful of flavour too.

The leftover pork is marinated with a mixture of cornflour, soy sauce and tomato paste and then added to a garlicy sauce along with some broccoli, brussels sprouts and mushrooms.    Cooking the veggies in the sauce gives them a deliciously different taste, and the pork absorbs the sauce and comes out tender and juicy.  The whole dish is ready in just over half-an-hour, and because it uses leftover pork it is super economical.

You can also make this dish using fresh cubed pork leg (or shoulder). Because the pork is cut into small dice it only takes and extra 15 minutes to make. The steps to make with fresh pork are identical, only the cooking time increases.

Ingredients for Roast Pork in Garlic Sauce

Whenever I read a recipe I like to have a look at the ingredients to see whether I have everything I need. To make it easy for you – I’ve listed the ingredients below. You can get the full list of ingredients and quantities in the printable recipe card further down in the post.

I have deliberately not included salt in this recipe as the dish is made with leftover pork which will already have been salted. If you are using fresh raw pork to make this dish, please add salt to your own taste.

Main Ingredients

The quantities given in this recipe will feed 2 to 3 people. You can easily adapt it to feed more. Allow approximately 1 cup of diced pork and 1 and a half cups of vegetables per person. If you are making for more than three people you should also increase the amount of stock so that you get sufficient garlic sauce.

• Leftover Roast Pork cut into cubes (depends on how much pork you have leftover). Once we have finished with our pork roast I cut the leftover meat into blocks and store in a ziploc bag in the freezer.
• If you want to use fresh pork you will need the same amount of freshly cubed pork meat, preferably from the leg.
• Broccoli broken into florets
• Brussels Sprouts cut in half
• Baby Mushrooms you can cut these in half or leave them whole if they are very small.
• Beansprouts – these get added at the end of the cooking process and give a lovely crunch to the dish.

Note – you can substitute these veggies with your favourite vegetable of choice. I find that finely shredded cabbage give extra texture.

For the marinade

This is used to marinate either the leftover pork, or the fresh pork if you are using fresh.

• Olive Oil
• Dark Soy Sauce
• Cornflour
• Tomato Puree

For the Garlic Sauce

• Chicken Stock – if you don’t have fresh, you can make some up using a stock cub
• Dark Soy Sauce
• Oyster Sauce
• Garlic (finely chopped) or use the equivalent amount of garlic paste
• Rice Wine Vinegar
• Brown Sugar
• Chilli Flakes more or less to taste – this is optional – you can leave it out if you like.
• Sesame Oil – sesame oil is not used for frying, it is used for flavouring.
• Ginger (finely grated) or use 1/2 teaspoon ginger paste
• Cornflour mixed with a little water used to thicken the sauce after adding the meat (only if necessary). There is cornflour in the marinade which may be sufficient to thicken the sauce.

How to make roast pork in garlic sauce

Marinate the pork

• Place all the ingredients for the marinade in a bowl large enough to take the pork and mix well.
• Cut the pork (either leftover or fresh) into cubes and then add to the marinade ingredients. Stir well to ensure the pork is well-coated. Let it stand for about 15 minutes.
• If you have pre-frozen the pork, just let it defrost in the fridge before you add it to the marinade.

Prepare the vegetables

• Place all the ingredients for the sauce (except the cornflour and water) in a saucepan and bring to the boil. 
• Turn the heat down to a simmer and add the broccoli, brussels sprouts and mushrooms. 
• Leave to simmer for about 10 minutes until the veggies are almost cooked.
• Add the beansprouts and simmer for 2 minutes longer.

Using leftover pork

If you are using leftover pork there is no need to cook the pork. It just needs to be heated in the sauce.

• Add the pork and the marinade and allow to simmer for another 5 minutes until well-heated through and the sauce has thickened.
• If the sauce looks too thin you can thicken it with a little cornflour mixed with water.

Using fresh pork

If you are using fresh pork, you will have to cook the pork first, before adding it to the vegetables.

• Heat a little olive oil in a large frying pan and add the pork and the marinade.
• Stir-fry over a medium heat until the pork is cooked through. This will take between 10 and 15 minutes.
• To test whether the pork is cooked, cut a piece in half. There should not be any pink showing.
• Once the pork is cooked add it to the vegetables and continue with the instructions for leftover pork above.

Can I freeze roast pork in garlic sauce?

If you are super-organised you could mix the cubed leftover pork with the marinade and store it in your freezer until you are ready to use it. Otherwise, just do as I do and chop the pork into cubes and freeze without the marinade.

You can freeze leftover roast pork for up to 3 months.  Then, all you have to do is defrost the meat, whip up the sauce, add the defrosted pork, and simmer until it is well-heated.

If you are using fresh pork, you can freeze this cubed with or without the marinade. It will last in the freezer for up to 3 months. To use, allow it to defrost in the fridge then just follow the recipe instructions.

I wouldn’t freeze the cooked dish of roast pork in garlic sauce itself, as the vegetables would go soggy once defrosted.

What to serve with Roast Pork in Garlic Sauce

You could serve roast pork with garlic sauce in many ways

I like to serve this dish on a bed of fluffy white rice. See this post on how to cook rice in the microwave. It only takes 8 minutes.

Or why not try it with this delicious spicy mushroom rice.

You could also serve it over pasta, or on a pile of mashed potatoes.

Or why not try something different and spoon the pork into a warm pita bread, or roll it in a fajita wrap.

Do I have to use pork?

No – not at all. The garlic sauce goes particularly well with chicken. In fact I based my recipe for garlic chicken stirfry on the ingredients in the garlic sauce.

You could also substitute finely sliced beef for the pork in this recipe.

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Convert grams to cups

To help you convert your recipe measurements, I have created a handy Cookery Conversion Calculator which will convert ingredients between grams, ounces, tablespoons, cups and millilitres. I hope you will find it useful.

If you live at a high altitude you may find you need to adjust your baking recipes to compensate for this. You can read about how to do this in this post on baking at high altitudes.

Recipe – Roast Pork in Garlic Sauce

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