Tuscan Pot Roast Recipe

I picked up a big, beautiful piece of meat from the House of Meats at Anderson’s last week when it was on sale.  I don’t remember exactly what the cut was – I think boneless top round or something like that.  I knew I had a bag of small pearl onions in the freezer that was hella old – like easily two years old – and I wanted to finally use it, so when I saw a Tuscan Pot Roast recipe, I went for it.  The original recipe called for dried (rehydrated) porcini mushrooms, but I just used white button since I bought them when I bought the roast.

Surprisingly the onions looked pretty good for being so old.  I was afraid they’d be all shriveled up and freezer burned.  I also had a bag of carrots in the fridge that were looking scary.  And since I can’t even remember when the last time was that I bought whole carrots was, I knew they were old too – and they looked it.  I peeled them and sliced them on a diagonal and also used the end of a bag of baby carrots.

Our dog Boof was very interested in the chopping of the carrots, as her standard treat is a tiny piece of carrot, so she’s pretty confident that every carrot in the fridge is actually for her.  I think she thought she hit the motherload when she saw me chopping all of those!

Tuscan Pot Roast
inspired by this pin

• 8 oz. white button mushrooms, or preferred shrooms, sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 2 teaspoons lemon pepper seasoning or 1 teaspoon grated lemon peel and 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano leaves or 1 teaspoon herbes de provence
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 boneless beef roast (2 1/2 lb), trimmed of fat
• 1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes, undrained
• 1/2 bag baby carrots or 3-4 larges carrots, cut on diagonal
• 1 cup frozen small whole onions (from 1-lb bag), thawed
• 1 cup dry red wine or beef broth
• red pepper flakes, to taste

In small bowl, mix garlic, lemon pepper or lemon peel, oregano and salt. Rub mixture over beef; place in slow cooker.  Top beef with mushrooms, tomatoes, thawed onions and wine (or broth).  Cover; cook on low for 8 to 9 hours.

Slice beef in crock and serve with veggie mixture and sauce.  If you prefer it to be more like stew, add more broth, wine, or water.

We really enjoyed the roast, but I wished I would have added some extra vegetables.  I did add some extra broth so that it would have more liquid.  I kept wishing for some biscuits or thick bread to dip in this, but I was too lazy to make anything like that.  You should definitely have something to dip in it though.

I will probably make something like this again, but will use different spices and veggies because I like to mix things up – so I guess it won’t be Tuscan Pot Roast at that point anymore.

Do you have a favorite roast recipe?  Give me a link if you do!