This pulled pork taco recipe will beat the Sunday blues

Did anyone else's weekend just fly by?

I cannot believe it's Sunday already.  I find I'm chasing my tail so much over the weekends trying to catch up with Zoom calls, laundry and am also so slammed with tiredness after the week of work that it can be hard to make time to do something fun and relaxing. It's suddenly Sunday and the most fun thing that happened all weekend was my glass of wine. 

I'm a big believer of making Sunday nights fun. The Sunday scaries are a far too real thing at the moment, and rather than slump around dreading the Monday morning inbox onslaught, I like to make a fun dinner. Something new, something interesting to make and something that tastes totally delicious. 

Last week I made pulled pork tacos, and I just had to share this recipe with you. It's going to kick the Sunday blues right out of the house, I promise.

You'll need:

• 1 pork shoulder
• small flour tortillas 
• 2-3 avocados
• 1 red onion
• 200g baby tomatoes
• 1 bunch fresh coriander
• 2 limes
• 2 shallots
• 4tbsp olive oil
• 1tbsp tomato paste
• 3tbsp soy sauce
• 4tbsp brown sugar
• 2tsp cumin
• 2tsp dried oregano
• 1/2tsp chilli powder (vary depending on how spicy you like it)
• 2tsp garlic powder
• 2tsp onion powder
• 2tsp smoked paprika
• Salt and pepper
• 200ml orange juice
• 100ml lime juice
• 3-4 bay leaves
• 1 cup of water

Pour a tablespoon of olive oil into a pan over a medium heat and sear the pork shoulder for about 3 minutes on each side. Remove from the heat and set to one side.

In a bowl, add 3 tbsp of olive oil, your tomato paste, soy sauce, brown sugar, cumin, oregano, chilli powder, garlic powder, onion powder, smoked paprika and sprinkle a pinch of salt and pepper to season. Mix together to create a paste.

Put your pork shoulder on a chopping board and rub the paste into the meat. Chop shallots into small pieces. 

Place the pork shoulder into a crock pot on a medium heat and add orange juice, lime juice and the bay leaves to the pot. Add in the shallots and add a cup of water. Leave to simmer. If it reduces too much and the pork shoulder isn't cooked through, add more water, orange juice and lime juice and leave for another 10-15 minutes or until cooked through. There should still be a reduction of the sauce left once the pork is cooked. Save it.

While the pork is cooking, chop up your red onion, avocado and baby tomatoes and place them in separate bowls on the table for serving with the tacos. 

Begin heating your grill to 200 degrees Celsius. Warm up the tacos two minutes before serving.

Remove the pork shoulder from the crockpot and place it on a parchment-lined baking tray. Using two forks, begin to tear it apart to create the pulled pork texture.

Once this is done, drizzle half the leftover reduced sauce over the pulled pork and put it under the grill for 5 to 10 minutes to allow it to crisp up. Before serving, drizzle the remaining sauce over the pork to make it really juicy and flavoursome. 

Lay out your taco bar, chop up some limes, add coriander to the pork as a garnish and let everyone help themselves! Voila!