Slow cooked beef or pork roasts make excellent family meals and take the fuss away from last minute cooking after a long work day. Many fond family memories begin with the roast on Grandma’s table. Grandma may not have used a crockpot but many recipes today utilize the slow cooker as a means of making a meal. Crock pot roast recipes vary significantly depending on the liquid and seasoning used with the meat.

A lower grade or tougher cut of meat can be used when cooking in a crockpot, allowing for less expensive meals. The low slow cooking process will help to tenderize the meat more so that a stove top cooking method. Although the cooking process is longer, and requires advance preparation, crockpot cooking is largely unattended and is a good method of cooking for a working parent. A crockpot roast can be started early in the morning and enjoyed for an afternoon meal after Sunday church services.

A number of variations exist for crockpot roast preparation. The roast can be cooked alone with just a beef broth liquid. This works best when guests have varying taste preferences for vegetables. Another crockpot roast meal can be prepared using the beef broth as a liquid and adding potato chunks, onions, and carrots for a meal similar to a Yankee pot roast. A third style of crockpot roast is a creamy pot roast. This meal can be made by choosing vegetables desired and then adding a cream soup of your choice to the crockpot with no other liquid. Choices include cream of mushroom, cream of celery or cream of potato. These cream soups cook down to a gravy during the cooking process.

Continue reading to learn more about How to Cook Crockpot Roast.

Cooking a beef pot roast in the crockpot should result in a tender cut of meat which can be cooked as a one pot meal with vegetables or as just the meat used for sandwiches.

• Ingredients
• Large Round or Chuck Roast
• Chopped Onion
• Chopped Carrots
• Chopped Potatoes
• Seasoning as desired
• 1 to 2 cups tomato juice, coke, or beef broth
• 2 Tablespoons oil

• Directions

1. Rub seasonings on roast. Consider season salt, peppers, onion salt, chili powder, etc.
2. Let roast stand with seasonings for ten minutes
3. Sear roast in oil in hot frying pan.
4. Place roast in crockpot
5. Top with chopped vegetables
6. Add liquid of choice
7. Cook 6 hours on low. If vegetables are still hard continue to cook longer.

Open-faced roast beef sandwiches are always a big hit at the dinner table. Cut the work in preparing this meal by letting the crockpot make the gravy for the roast beef.

• Ingredients
• 5 lb Roast
• 2 CansMushroom soup
• Onions (optional)
• Mushrooms (optional)

• Directions

1. Chop Onions and Mushrooms
2. Place roast in crockpot.
3. Top with Vegetables
4. Add soup from cans over roast.
5. ‘’’Do not Dilute!’’’
6. Cook in Slow Cooker for 6 hours on low. At the three hour mark, slice the meat into the gravy.

Food historians show dried soup mixes being introduced to cooking as early as the 1930s. http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodsoups.html These soup mixes offer an easy way to flavor meats, casseroles, dips, and vegetables. Here’s a crockpot roast recipe using dry onion soup.

• Ingredients
• 5 lbs beef roast
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 3 stalks celery
• 4 carrots, cut in thick chunks
• 1 large onion diced
• 2 cups beef broth
• 1 package dry onion soup mix

• Directions

1. Heat oil on high in frying pan. Brown roast on all sides. Add to slow cooker.
2. Add vegetables and dry onion soup mix.
3. Pour beef broth over roast and vegetables.
4. Cook on low for 6-8 hours.
5. Turn roast over at the 3 hour point.
6. Roast is done when meat falls apart.