Slow Cooked Tuscan Inspired Stew

kimwp

Long shot, but I recently had the Sainsbury Taste the Difference Slow Cooked Tuscan Inspired Pork Stew. It was so delicious that I'd love to find a copy-cat recipe, although ideally vegan or at least vegetarian. I've found a few recipes online, but I don't think they will have the sweetness that this one had. 
These are the ingredients as listed;

British Pork (42%), Tuscan Inspired Tomato Stew Paste (Tomatoes (Tomatoes, Acidity Regulator: Citric Acid; Tomato Juice), White Wine, Sundried Tomato (Water, Sundried Tomato, Tomato Paste, Salt), Chicken Stock (Salt, Chicken, Water), Orange Juice Concentrate, Cornflour, Garlic, Sugar, Water, Olive Oil, Acid: Acetic Acid; Salt, Chilli Purée, Orange Zest, Parsley, Basil, Rosemary, Oregano, Paprika Extract, Black Pepper), Red Peppers (13%), Onions (13%), Cannellini Beans (10%) (Cannellini Beans, Water, Salt, Firming Agent: Calcium Chloride; Antioxidant: Ascorbic Acid), Brown Sugar, Dried Garlic, Cornflour, Tomato Powder, Salt, Red Pepper, Garlic Powder, Parsley, Black Pepper, Rosemary, Lemon Juice Powder, Sage, Stabiliser: Guar Gum; Acid: Citric Acid; Oregano, Cumin, Colour: Paprika Extract; Black Pepper Extract, Lemon Oil.

I do experiment a bit, but not always successfully, I've never created a recipe from scratch - can anyone help?

pearl123

If cooking casseroles/ stews is new to you. You could could try adding a teaspoon of suger or a drizzle of honey to taste towards the end of cooking.
Personally, unless it is to balance out a sharpness, i tend to avoid adding sugars to main meals. 
I highly recommed the bbc site, as it has recipes reviews. Plus, it has many easy to make meals. 
https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/collections/1_best_slow_cooker_recipes
https://sweetpeasandsaffron.com/slow-cooker-tuscan-chicken-stew/

https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/tuscan_chicken_85727

dreaming

I would just make a list of the ingredients but missing out the "chemically" ones. So basically this product is (ignoring the pork too) mainly tomatoes with lots of added tomato products (sun-dried tomatoes/puree etc), stock, white wine, orange juice, olive oil, onions, garlic, cornflour (to thicken), lots of herbs and spices, sugar, salt, pepper with cannellini beans added. I would start by saute-ing onions (and probably some chopped celery too), add the herbs and spices (you would have to adjust this to suit your tastes but start with the ones in the ingredients), add the cornflour to thicken and then add a tin of chopped tomatoes (or passata, or fresh, chopped ones) and the sun-dried tomatoes with a squirt of puree, then add the stock and orange juice (not too much to start-you can always add more) and season to taste, white wine. Many professional chefs advise the use of a small amount of sugar to balance the acidity of tomatoes but I personally don't (I'm not professional). If you wanted to use meat then brown this first and add it quite early to absorb the flavours, but this would work nicely with not just the cannellini beans but other beans too. I think I would particularly add chickpeas and butter beans.
You might have to have a few goes to get the balance of flavours how you like it but most cooking is fairly simple when you break it down. I personally like the BBC Good Food recipes site, and Spain on a Fork on YouTube. If you watch a few of the latter you realise that most of the dishes often start with the same basic ingredients - onion, garlic, celery, carrots, tomatoes, stock. I found it quite addictive to watch when I was recuperating from an operation. Good luck if you have a go.

kimwp

Thank you both. It's the amounts of the ingredients really that I'm unsure about. I've found a recipe that sounds similar-ish, so I am going to try that one and adapt towards the other one if I can.

robertandalison

This is a really nice pork stew that's quite sweet. And it works well in the slow cooker. You could base yours on this but add orange juice and cannelini beans. 
I can't post links so search bbcgoodfood for pork goulash with herby dumplings

kimwp

robertandalison said:

This is a really nice pork stew that's quite sweet. And it works well in the slow cooker. You could base yours on this but add orange juice and cannelini beans. 
I can't post links so search bbcgoodfood for pork goulash with herby dumplings

Ooh, lovely, thank you! 

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/pork-goulash-herby-dumplings