My slow cooker, my friend. And a worthy friend at that! I can roughly chop a bunch of ingredients up, throw them in my slow cooker, and 4-8 hours later I have a meal that is comforting, delicious, complex in flavour, and almost always yields leftovers. Pot roast is an especially rewarding slow cooker meal, the final product being akin to actual kitchen alchemy with very little effort on your behalf. All you need to do is brown the roast on all sides and then pop it into your crockpot, add a few flavour enhancers, and then nestle in a bouquet of winter vegetables to complete the meal. I know that lots of people like to add potatoes to their pot roast, which you should do if that sounds appealing. Personally, I prefer my potatoes made separately – mashed with butter and Greek yogurt until perfectly whipped and fluffy. You can add all sorts of vegetables to your slow cooker, besides the options presented below; I am particularly fond of celeriac, parsnips, mushrooms, pearl onions, fennel bulbs, and turnip. Just make the vegetables are cut up in a fairly uniform size, although the risk of undercooking anything is rendered impossible due to cooking times. This is also a very forgiving recipe and in fact a very good one to use if you’re trying to clean out your fridge drawers of somewhat wilted vegetables. You can omit the red wine and use all broth, or omit the broth and use all wine. The fresh herbs could be substituted with dried (use less in this case), you could also add some puréed tomatoes to make an exceptionally savoury ragu for pasta. Alternately, you could serve this pot roast on freshly toasted rolls with thin slices of mozzarella for a rustic take on the good old fashioned Sloppy Joe (one of my favourite ways to use up leftovers). I don’t think pot roast requires that you make complementary sides, but a big green salad and steamed broccolini with chopped garlic and olive oil wouldn’t be remiss.

fantastic slow cooker pot roast:

3-4 lb. pot roast (I generally use deboned roasts)

2 Tbsp. grapeseed oil

1 Tbsp. tomato paste

1 cup of red wine

1 cup of beef broth

2 stalks of celery, cut into thin half moons

1 large red onion, cut into fat wedges

3 large carrots, peeled and cut into generous, uniform pieces

3 cloves of garlic, minced

1 small rutabaga, sliced into thick half moon pieces

1 fresh sprig of rosemary

3 fresh sprigs of thyme

2 bay leaves

1-2 Tbsp. flour or cornstarch

Generous amounts of kosher salt and freshly cracked pepper

1. In an large skillet or Dutch oven brown the roast in the grapeseed oil on each side. Transfer to your slow cooker.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients, except for the flour or cornstarch, and cook on high for 4 hours or 8 hours on low.
3. Towards the end of the cooking time remove some of the gravy from the slow cooker and whisk in the flour or cornstarch before returning the mixture back to the slow cooker. Stir the mixture back into the contents of the slow cooker and heat for another half an hour or so, stirring occasionally to prevent lumps.

I’ve been revisiting Sparklehorse lately, which is like wrapping yourself in a big blanket of sadness. The real life tragedy behind Sparklehorse is all too real is and seeps into their music as thick as any depression I can remember, which is odd because I generally find myself listening to Sparklehorse when I feel the lights turn on in my own life.

Sparklehorse – Painbirds