Something Savory: Mom's Pot Roast

Oh man, the house smelled so good when this was cooking. I think I found excuses to leave the house just so the smell would be that much more intense when I got back. Even if it was only going as far as the mailbox.

Chase and I had a roast in our freezer for at least a month or two before I finally called my mom for her recipe. I had bought the roast on sale, but never got around to cooking it and eventually forgot about it. Mostly because Chase and I only get in the freezer if there's ice cream in there, and we've been trying to be good about not buying ice cream. Probably because it's winter.

Anyway, I rediscovered the frozen roast and decided that a big ol' pot roast would hit the spot. And it did.

And then two days later I used the leftovers to make an Oven Stew that also hit the spot (and will hit the blogspot later this week).

My mom never put fresh onion into her pot roast, and this time I didn't either, but Chase noted that some thick-sliced mild yellow onions would add a great extra texture to the mix. So that's included in the recipe below, and will likely be part of our roasts in the future.

I'm going to put a caveat on the serving size: A roast should serve about 3 people per pound. However, if you want to be sure to have enough leftovers for the Oven Stew recipe (coming this Thursday), make a roast that's about three-quarters of a pound larger than what you need for the initial serving. Chase and I made a two-pound roast, which gave us enough for 4 servings plus leftovers for the stew.

Happy slow cooking!

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Mom's Pot Roast

Ingredients

2 lb beef roast

5-6 medium potatoes

1 lb thick baby carrots; or 2 cups carrots, cut into large chunks

1 cup thick-sliced yellow onion or pearl onions (optional)

1 packet dry onion soup mix

1 ½ cups water

Directions

1. Peel and half potatoes, and trim excess fat from roast.

2. Place the potatoes at the bottom of a large crock pot, the carrots and onions on top of the potatoes, and roast on top of the vegetables.

3. Pour the water into the crock pot over the vegetables.

4.

Pour the packed of the onion soup mix directly on top of the beef roast.

5. Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours for a two-pound roast (increase to 10-12 for a three- or four-pound roast).

6. Carve the roast, and serve the roast, potatoes and carrots topped with the extra liquid in the pot.

Vegetable layer.

Our two-pound roast.

Topped with oniony goodness.

Slow-roasted and ready for eating.

Happy cooking!