Pot Roast sans Potatoes

Pot roast sans potatoes just sounds wrong. Doesn't it?

Anyway, as usual, I had an incident...

But it totally was NOT my fault.

I don't know if it was my crock pot or if the electrical socket got screwed up when guys were fixing another one nearby. But the point is, my crock pot really only heated to about warm when I definitely had it on "low."

I fixed it though. The roast. Not the crock pot.

For this dish, you will need:

a pound or two of roast,

some baby carrots,

Lipton onion soup mix,

a couple boxes of beef broth or stock (I prefer stock),

black pepper to taste, and

if you're not on the low carb diet 1/3 C flour

Get out your hunk o meat. And sear it.

If you plan to use the flour, now is the easiest time to put it in the pot, in my opinion. Mix it up with a a little bit of your stock.

Next, throw your hunk o seared meat into your crock pot.

Now, put in one envelope of Lipton onion soup mix.

You should also add your carrots and broth. I only put in one box of stock to begin with, but enough of it evaporated while it was cooking that I ended up adding another box later.

This is also the time to add your black pepper to taste.

The roast should cook on low 6 to 8 hours.

Somewhere between hours four and five is when this got all messed up for me. This was cooking along just fine before the people showed up to repair an electrical socket.

Hour five was when I added my squash. You want your squash to absorb all the gravy deliciousness, but you don't want them to get so soggy they disintegrate while the pot roast is cooking, so toss them in an hour before you plan to eat.

I cut the pieces between 1/4 and 1/2 inch thick. I used 2 squashes. (Is that the correct way to say that? 2 squashes. A piece of squash to me is one of the pieces I cut off. So I don't think two pieces of squash is correct. Oh, well...)

 

This is when I noticed my pot wasn't as hot as it normally was.

To expedite the cooking process when I realized what was wrong, I took the pot part out of the crock pot, covered it with some foil and stuck it in the oven at 400 degrees for about an hour. It cooked through well enough, but overall it was a very frustrating experience. The meat did not turn out as tender as usual. :(

This is a great recipe, though. If you skip all the technical difficulties, this is actually super easy.

Recipe:

1-2 lb roast

1 package baby carrots

1 -2 boxes beef broth or stock

1 envelope Lipton onion soup mix

black pepper, to taste

2 yellow squashes 

1. Sear roast. Put in crock pot.

2. Add envelope Lipton onion soup mix, baby carrots, black pepper, and beef broth.

3. Cook on low 6 - 8 hours.

4. One hour before your roast is finished, add sliced squash.

5. Enjoy!

Be sure to make some mashed potatoes for yourself if you are not the poor soul on the low carb diet!