Beef Pot Roast

DD loves meals cooked in our slow cooker and requested on for a Saturday night dinner. I was reading a Super Food Ideas magazine at the time and happened across a recipe for Beef Pot Roast that we decided to adapt to the slow cooker.

We used a big chunk of beef topside which I browned on all sides first, as per the recipe, before transferring into the slow cooker. DD isn't a fan of the vegetables in the actual recipes so we cut them out and just used onions and sweet potato. We have learned from previous slow cooker disasters that you really can't just throw everything in there and walk away, because when you come back 6 or 7 hours later your vegetables have disintegrated. In fact, we get a refresher on this every time we use the slow cooker because we never remember the next time. I did remember this time! I added the vegetables 4 hours after the meat, which meant that they were only cooking for about 2 and half hours. They were still a little mushy but if they had been normal potato they would have been fine. Next time I'll have to leave it a bit longer before adding them.

I turned the meat twice during the cooking time as the liquid didn't cover the entire hunk of meat. I increased the liquid by an extra cup (1/2 beef stock, 1/2 water) to bring it up to cover more of the meat. There was a little flappy bit attached to the meat that did dry out a little, but the main piece turned out lovely and tender, and you could separate the meat strands easily with your fork. The flavour was really rich and deep too, but I did add some soy sauce after tasting the liquid for seasoning. It probably could have been served with something light in contrast, but I didn't realise how strong the flavour had become so I didn't think of it. I think some lightly steamed vegetables would have been good, or I could have left out the soy sauce.

We used the leftover meat the next day for lunch in roast meat and gravy sandwiches. It almost tasted better in the sandwiches than it did for dinner, but gravy is very good...

Beef pot roast
Adapted from Super Food Ideas magazine July 2008 p 42

1 1/2 tbs olive oil
600g whole lean beef topside
1 onion, chopped
2 tsp dried thyme leaves
2 tbs plain flour
2 tbs worcestershire sauce
2 cups beef stock

Heat half the oil in a frypan and brown the beef of all sides, approx 5 minutes per side. Transfer to slow cooker bowl.

Heat remainin oil in the frypan and add the onion and thyme. Cook until softened. Add flour and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes. Add the sauce, stock and 1 cup cold water. Bring to the boil.

Pour the liquid over the meat and turn on the slow cooker. Cook for 6-7 hours or as recommended by your slow cooker. Turn the meat every two or so hours and add sweet potato approximately 1-1 1/2 hours before finishing time.