Paleo Tomato Maple Pulled Pork

Paleo Tomato Maple Pulled Pork recipe. A healthy slow cooker pulled pork with hints of sweetness from the tomatoes and maple syrup and spice from the red pepper flakes, paprika, and chili powder.

This Paleo Tomato Maple Pulled Pork recipe is one of my favorite slow cooker pork recipes because it comes together so easily and the flavors are so good.

There’s a bit of sweetness from the tomatoes and maple syrup and spice from the red pepper flakes, paprika, and chili powder. Throw it all into the slow cooker for 6-8 hours and you’ve got lunch or dinner for the week!

I’ve made this Paleo Tomato Maple Pulled Pork recipe many times over the years, and tweaked a bit here and there until I finally came up with my favorite way to make it.

Ingredients needed for this Paleo Tomato Maple Pulled Pork:

• pork roast
• onion
• salt
• pepper
• garlic powder
• thyme
• red pepper flakes
• paprika
• chili powder
• turmeric powder
• strained tomatoes
• maple syrup
• blackstrap molasses
• tomato paste

I’ve always loved using maple syrup and tomato sauce to season slower cooker meat recipes. It’s easy to add seasoning to and it just adds such a nice rich flavor to the meat.

Seasoning really is key, though, to kick it up a notch and I love using onion, salt, pepper, garlic powder, thyme, red pepper flakes, paprika, chili powder, and turmeric powder here.

I know that sounds like a lot of spices, but it just works.

And I’ve always been all about the seasoning. Especially to enhance healthy recipes. It’s such an easy, low calorie way to satisfy your taste buds.

The biggest change to this recipe that I made, that I didn’t do in the past, was the last step.

Basically after I take the pork out to shred it, I add blackstrap molasses and tomato paste to the remaining liquid in the slow cooker before adding the meat back to the sauce.

This gives the sauce that extra oomph…. it’s so good!

Black strap molasses is one of those “paleo friendly” ingredients that many have adopted into their diets because of the strong nutritional value of it. It’s a strong source of calcium, iron, magnesium, copper, zinc, and potassium. It actually has 5 times the iron of steak. How crazy is that?

If you are curious about adding this to your diet, check out this article by The Paleo Mom.

I have loved adding blackstrap molasses to gingerbread baked goods, and now I really love adding it to meats. It adds a strong bitter yet sweet yet smokey flavor. It’s hard to describe.

I wanted to mention one more thing about this recipe, feel free to use pork loin or pork shoulder based on your personal preference.

I tend to use whatever I can find… but pork roast, specifically pork shoulder or butt is best for making pulled pork.

However, whenever I plan on making pulled pork it seems like the grocery store that I am at only has one choice. Loin does tend to be less fatty, which I actually do like, but more on the dry side. 🙂

Other Paleo pork recipes you may enjoy:

Dutch Oven Baked Pork Loin with Jam and Spices

Diced Apple Slow Cooker Pulled Pork (Paleo, GF)