Minimalist eating at it’s best!
Today I woke up at 5am to have enough time to do all the things I had to do prior to my 6:30am shift. I washed my face, made myself look pretty, got dressed, made breakfast (three eggs with mushrooms, onions, and avocado), and scrolled through my Facebook feed.
I knew when I got home from my shift at 12:45pm, I’d be pretty hungry. Fortunately, I’d planned ahead! Two nights ago, I pulled a four pound hunk of meat (boneless bottom round roast) out of the freezer and put it in the refrigerator to thaw. Last night, I hacked up a few onions and carrots, and had some pre-sliced mushrooms already. So, this morning, all I had to do was dump the vegetables in the crock pot, place the meat on top, sprinkle on some salt, and turn it on.
I’d never cooked this cut of meat before, so I just crossed my fingers and hoped for the best as I walked out the door.
And when I got home, I lifted the lid of the slow cooker to discover this:
No liquid added!
And I was happy!
Recipe: Five-Minute, Five-Ingredient Pot Roast
Since you’re reading this, you know that it turned out delicious! I wouldn’t dare share a crappy recipe with you guys (unless, of course, I have bad taste).
Ingredients:
- 3-4lbs beef: chuck, brisket, top round, bottom round – all of these should work just fine!
- 1/2lb carrots, chopped into rounds
- 1/2lb baby bella or crimini mushrooms, sliced
- 2 medium yellow onions
- 4-6 cloves of garlic, sliced
Steps:
- Chop all vegetables and place in the bottom of your slow-cooker.
- Place the cut of meat on top, sprinkle with salt and/or pepper (probably about 1/2 a teaspoon).
- Cover, and set slow-cooker to “low.”
- Cook for 6-8 hours.
- Cut into slices and serve with green vegetables, salad greens, or just by itself!
I just microwaved some broccoli to add some more color to my plate.
Variations:
Where’s the Starch? Feel free to add chunks of sweet or white potato to the vegetables listed, or roast ‘em in the oven and serve on the side.
Minimalist? Booooring! Go ahead and experiment with herbs and spices like rosemary, paprika, oregano, etc.
Different Vegetables? Add or substitute leeks, other varieties of mushrooms, celery, parsnips, turnips, rutabaga – whatever you have on hand.
I am very intrigued by your minimalist pot roast! I’ve been saving a bunch of slow cooker recipes, including several for pot roast, but none were quite THIS simple. And they usually involve browning the meat in a skillet first! It looks like this meat turned out really nicely without browning first, so we might have to try this recipe. Thanks for sharing, Callan!
Exactly! I was looking at recipes and a lot of them involved browning the meat, and I did not want to add that step. So, I tried it. Perhaps I have lower standards for meat, but I thought this was perfectly palatable. If you try this out, let me know how it goes.
Before I knew that you “should” sear the meat first, I often plopped a roast in the crock-pot and had very good results. As a matter of fact, I’m not sure that browning it first has increased our enjoyment of the meal at all. And, more importantly, searing probably makes the meal slightly less healthy since “low and slow” is most likely the healthiest way too cook all of our food! So win-win
Hear hear, chowstalker! Thanks for posting my recipes, I LOVE your site and use it all the time!!
This might be a silly question. But did you add water?
I did not!