Easy Chuck Roast and Vegetables Recipe

There’s nothing as warm and inviting than a Sunday beef roast with roasted vegetables and fresh baked bread. Today, we will be giving you a great recipe for a juicy and flavorful beef roast from a very inexpensive — yet quality — cut of beef: chuck roast. Chuck roast is a bit smaller than round roasts or other larger cuts for roasting, so it makes a great roast size for singles and bachelors. This recipe is incredibly easy, requires little preparation, and when cooked slowly, you will have your roasted vegetables, potatoes, tender beef and a rich sauce on made in a single pot.

Ingredients For Chuck Roast With Vegetables

• 1 3-5 Pound Chuck Roast
• 3-5 Large Gold Potatoes
• 2 Medium Onions
• 3-4 Large Carrots
• 3-4 Stalks of Celery
• 2 Tablespoons of Chopped Garlic in Water
• 1 Tablespoon of Onion Powder
• 2-3 Sprigs of Thyme
• 2 Teaspoons of Rosemary
• 1 Teaspoon of Crushed Red Pepper Flakes
• 1 1/2 Tablespoons of Worcestershire Sauce
• 1 Dash of Soy Sauce
• About 1-2 Tablespoons of Salt and Pepper for the Meat
• 1 Large Bay Leaf
• 1 Can of Beef Stock
• Good Olive Oil

Again, this is a simple recipe to prepare; the trick is to get the vegetables cut to the right size. You want the vegetables to be cut a little larger than a dice… more of a cubed style cut.

Cut Your Onions

For the onions, simply cut off both ends of the onion. Next, Cut the onion in half lengthwise and remove the ouster skin. Next, Quart the onions and set to the side.

Slice Your Carrots

First peel the carrots and remove the ends. You will want to make sure that the carrot pieces are large by simply slicing on an angle to leave pieces approximately 1-1.5 inches long. Set carrots aside.

Slice Your Celery

Just like we wanted to get large slices of carrots, we also want large slices of celery as well. Make sure to rinse your celery stalks thoroughly, as they tend to collect dirt on the inside. Slice off both ends of the stalks and slice the celery into about 1-1.5 inch pieces and add to the carrots and onions.

Cube Your Gold Potatoes

First off, we use gold potatoes instead of russet potatoes, as they are more flavorful and can really hold up to the long cooking time of this recipe. Leave the skin on, but wash them well. we use a light sink sponge with an abrasive back to scrub the potatoes. After washing, slice the potatoes in half lengthwise and quarter each of the potatoes leaving cubed pieces that are fairly large. Set the potato pieces aside.

Salt and Pepper Your Roast

We usually don’t marinate our roasts, and season them only with salt and pepper. We like to use sea salt — salt specifically from the San Francisco Bay (you can usually find this in major grocery store chains) — and freshly ground black pepper. The exact amount needed with vary depending on the size of your roast. Start with the salt and rub it all over the meat, making sure to get the sides and any exposed crevices in the meat. Next rub the fresh cracked black pepper all over the meat.

In a large soup pot, drizzle good olive oil to lightly coat the bottom of the pot. We used Merula Olive Oil from Spain — Click Here to Get The Olive Oil We Used >>

Take your chuck roast and sear it on all sides over medium heat on the stove. Meat will not be cooked through, but will develop a tasty crust on all sides of the meat. After searing the meat, take the chuck roast out of the pot and set aside on a plate. Add another drizzle of olive oil into the pot and add all of your chopped celery, carrots and onions. Cook until translucent (about 5 minutes).

Once your carrots celery and onions have been cooked to translucency, we are going to add our Chopped Garlic in Water, Onion Powder, Sprigs of Thyme, Rosemary, Crushed Red Pepper Flakes, Soy Sauce, Worcestershire Sauce and Bay Leaf. Add a sprinkle of Salt and a bit of ground Black Pepper. Stir well to mix the spices and flavorings with the sauteed vegetables.

Next, lay out your potato cubes on top of the celery, carrots and onions — making a sort of a bed for the roast. Place the roast on top of the potatoes. Next, add your Beef Stock to the point where it is covering the vegetables and potatoes, but the chuck roast is not submerged. If the single can of beef stock is not enough, you can add water to get the liquid level to the perfect level.

Next place your lid on the soup pot and transfer to a preheated 375 degree oven. Continue to cook for 3-4 hours or until the roast is falling apart tender. During the cooking time, you will need to baste the roast with the liquid from the bottom of the pan about every 45 minutes to make sure that the top of the roast stays moist.

It is as simple as that!

When the roast is tender, simply remove the roast and plate it. It should be fork-tender and should easily fall apart into strands. Serve with the roasted vegetables and potatoes and maybe even a bit of blue cheese. This recipe goes great with Irish soda bread — Get Our Irish Soda Bread Recipe HERE >>

 

Best Quick and Easy White Bean, Bacon and Sausage Soup Recipe

If you caught our earlier recipe for cannellini relish, you know that we love to cook with white beans, especially of the cannellini variety. Click Here to Get Our Cannellini Relish Recipe… Today, we are cooking with white beans again, but this time we are going in the opposite direction of the cold relish recipe and making a warm, savory and smoky soup.

White Bean, Bacon and Sausage Soup is extremely easy to make and is very hearty. We often make this soup on the weekends and keep it in a soup warmer (slow cooker), for the family to pour themselves a bowl throughout Saturday and Sunday. Because it is a bean soup, it holds for a long time as well, and can be refrigerated or frozen and reheated later.

Bacon Vs. Ham Hock

A traditional white bean and sausage soup often uses a smoked ham hock to get that smoky pork flavored base in the soup. Our recipe skips the ham hock for a couple of reasons; first, a good ham hock is becoming harder to find, and the ones you do find in the grocery stores are not that great of quality and have often been deep frozen. Instead, we use delicious bacon to render that smoky pork flavoring and find that we do not miss cleaning the ham hock, nor do we lose any flavor.

Kielbasa, Polish Sausage, Ukrainian Sausage

For the sausage in this soup, we like to use kielbasa — also called Polish Sausage or Ukrainian Sausage — as it has a good bite and good flavor. The sausage doesn’t really flavor the broth so much as it is a meaty chunk to balance out the beans, so go with whatever your favorite sausage is. However, make sure that it is a smoked sausage, as that flavor balances well with the rest of the flavors in the soup.

Ingredients For White Bean, Bacon and Sausage Soup

This recipe will make a large pot of soup, but feel free to cut it down to smaller batches if you like. Again, this soup holds well and you can freeze it to reheat it later, so we always make the big batch.

Ingredients:

• 2 Medium Yellow Onions
• 3 Stalks of Celery
• 2 Large Carrots (Peeled and Diced)
• 1 Packet of Sliced Bacon (1 pound)
• 1 Tablespoon of Vegetable Oil
• 2 Tablespoons of Butter
• 3 Cans of White Beans (Cannellini Beans)
• 1 Can of Diced Potatoes
• 3 Cans of Beef Stock
• 1 Teaspoon of Cayenne Pepper
• 2 Tablespoons of Chopped Garlic (In Water)
• 1 Tablespoon of Onion Powder
• 1 Teaspoon of Garlic Powder
• 2 Teaspoons of Smoked Paprika
• 2 Teaspoons of Turmeric
• 2 Bay Leaves
• 3 Tablespoons of Worcestershire Sauce
• 2 Tablespoons of Ground Black Pepper
• Salt to Taste

Directions for Cooking White Bean, Bacon and Sausage Soup

Preparing Your Mirepoix

A mirepoix is a mixture of celery carrots and onions that give this soup recipe (and many other soup recipes) the basis for flavoring. Preparing it is simple, and it is really the only “hard work” that you have to do in this incredibly easy soup recipe.

1. Take your carrots and peal them.
2. Slice carrots in half lengthwise.
3. Slice the carrot halves in half again lengthwise.
4. Slice the carrot sticks into roughly quarter inch “cubes.”
5. Take your cleaned celery stalks and slice in half lengthwise.
6. Slice the celery into roughly quarter inch “cubes.”
7. Cut off both ends of your onions.
8. Cut onion in half and rotate.
9. Dice the onion into quarter inch “cubes.”

With your mirepoix prepared, you can set it aside and move onto the bacon.

1. Take the full package of bacon and slice it into 1/2 inch pieces. HINT: You can actually use scissors to quickly slice the bacon into appropriate pieces.
2. In a large soup pot pour in your vegetable oil and let it coat the bottom of the pot, while bringing it up to medium-low heat.
3. Add the bacon pieces and let the bacon render out all of its fat.
4. When the bacon is starting to brown, and the fat has melted off, use a slotted spoon to fish out all of the bacon pieces, leaving the fat and oil behind.
5. Add your mirepoix of carrots, celery and onions to the bacon fat in the pot and give them a stir (making sure to let all the vegetables get coated with the flavoring).
6. At this point add your butter to the mirepoix as it is cooking so that the vegetables have plenty of fat to simmer in until translucent NOTE: The vegetables will quickly drink up most of the bacon fat originally used, so the butter helps to keep them moist while cooking.
7. When you mirepoix has been cooked until translucent, add the bacon pieces back in, and give a good stir.
8. Next add your spices: Cayenne Pepper, Chopped Garlic, Onion Powder, Garlic Powder, Smoked Paprika, Turmeric, Bay Leaves, Worcestershire Sauce, Ground Black Pepper.
9. Stir all ingredients well and add your Canned White Beans and Diced Potatoes.
10. Slice your kielbasa sausage in half lengthwise and cut at an angle into chunks (Size is up to you).
11. Add the Beef Stock to the pot. NOTE: the 3 cans of beef stock is usually enough to cover all of the ingredients, but if your white beans are extra thirsty, simply add water to make sure that the broth is at the right balance to the rest of the ingredients. Some like their soups thicker, while others like it more watery… this step is up to you.
12. Bring everything to a boil, then lower the heat to low and let the soup simmer for 15-20 minutes.
13. Final Step: taste the broth and add salt to taste.

And That is All It Takes…!

After only 20 minutes of simmering, this soup is finished! Who knew making a delicious white bean soup could be so easy? Serve soup alongside pieces of your favorite crusty bread (baguettes, foccacia and ciabatta go great with the flavors in this soup).