Columbus Foodie

It’s time again for Apples & Thyme, the food blogging event that celebrates the recipes we’ve learned from our mothers and grandmothers. This time I’m going to focus on my mother.

Unlike me, she doesn’t experiment that much with cooking, having a dozen or so staple dishes that she makes really well, with the occasional new recipe being dreamt up or tested for variety. I’m not exactly sure where she got this recipe, but it’s the way she’s made pot roast for as long as I can remember, and it’s so easy even a child could do it.

It only has four ingredients – a 3 to 4 pound chuck roast, an envelope of onion soup mix, a 15-oz can of diced or stewed tomatoes, and the seasoning of your choice (I use Penzey’s Beef Roast seasoning). Put the meat into foil (I use a Dutch oven), sprinkle it with seasoning, soup mix and tomatoes, and either seal up the foil or put the lid tightly on the Dutch oven. Cook low ‘n slow in a 250F oven for about 8 hours – when you peek again after that time, the roast will be falling-apart tender. Set the roast and veggies aside, and put any juices through a strainer. Make gravy by thickening with Wondra and bringing the drippings to a boil for 1-2 minutes, and then pour gravy on top of roast and serve.

Serve with potatoes or noodles. Makes great leftover open-faced pot roast sandwiches.