Real Meals | Beef Roast and Root Veggies

March 24, 2025

A few weeks ago, I started a series that I’ve cheekily entitled, “Real Meals.” These are real meals for real people that don’t have long lists of ingredients or weird ingredients that I don’t already have in my cupboard. These are meals that my family enjoys (for the most part—what mom cooks we eat at my house…hehe) and that are gentle on our wallet.

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With the prices of beef rising, especially ground beef, it is more challenging to get beef to the table. My husband feels better when he has some beef (aka, “man food”) in his diet, and he just doesn’t thrive on a diet of completely lean meats. So I’ve been trying to get beef to the table without blowing our grocery budget out of the water.

Beef roast (any type) is definitely more of a special meal for us. I can usually source it for around $6 or $7 a pound, and at that price, I try to make it last for at least two meals. For this particular meal, I got the roast for $4.98 a pound. Score!

As a child, I remember my mom making this beef roast recipe (or something very similar to it) on Saturday nights for our Sunday lunch. Often she would actually put the roast frozen into the crockpot on Saturday night, and on Sunday morning, the amazing smell of beef roast greeted our noses as we ran around getting ready for church.

My version of “Sunday roast” is not rocket science. In fact what I’m sharing with you today isn’t really a recipe, per se, but it’s rather more of a concept that you can take and run with to your own liking. This meal is hearty and will serve a crowd, and depending on how hungry your peeps are, you may have a nice meal of leftovers. I served this meal with a box mix of gluten free cheddar biscuits and called it a meal.

Additional side ideas might include green beans, peas, salad, muffins, homemade bread, jello, etc. The sky is the limit! You can dress this meal up or dress it down. It's simple and uncomplicated.

Ingredients

• Beef roast (any size will be fine)

• Root vegetables such as carrots, potatoes, onions. You could even change out the potatoes for another veggie like radishes if you are trying to go low-carb.

• Seasonings such as salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, parsley, etc

• Beef broth or my favorite is Better than Bouillion (beef kind)

For gravy (optional)

Flour

Milk

Directions

1.       Slice an onion and layer it in the bottom of the crockpot. This is not essential; I just enjoy doing it much to the annoyance of my onion-hating family members.

2.       Place the roast on top of the onions and then season to your heart’s content. I don’t measure my spices; I just sprinkle and shake until it looks good to me.

3.       If using beef broth, pour about 1 cup of broth around the roast. If using Better than Bouillion, mix a heaping teaspoon (or more if you like intense flavor) with a cup of water. Whisk together and then pour around your roast.

4.       Turn the crockpot on low for about 8-10 hours. I turned my crockpot on around 9:00 in the morning. Note—I did not put my potatoes and carrots in just yet because I didn’t want them turning to mush.

5.       After lunch, I cut up my veggies and added them to the crockpot. So the veggies had about 4-5 hours of cook time which was just enough to make them tender but not complete mush.

6.       Once the roast falls apart, it’s done! At least that’s how we like it.

7.       If you want to make gravy, strain off the delicious beefy broth into a small saucepan. Heat the broth until it starts to gently boil. While you wait for the broth to start bubbling, whisk a couple of tablespoons of your flour of choice (I used an all-purpose gluten free flour) into a cup of milk. Once the beef broth starts to bubble, pour in the flour and milk mixture. Keep whisking until the gravy reaches your desired consistency. I usually add some spices such as salt, pepper, and onion powder. Voila! Now you have a delicious gravy to drown your roast and veggies in.

If I remember correctly, my mom would actually add a can of cream of mushroom soup to her broth mixture that she poured around the roast (step 3). I know that for many, “cream of whatsit soups” have fallen out of vogue, but the soup did create a nice gravy-like texture that did not require additional gravy. With the ease of gluten free products now, I bet you could even find a healthier gf cream of mushroom soup. Just a thought.

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What’s cooking at your house? Do you have any easy recipe ideas that you would like to share? Happy cooking!

-Ashley

Personal Disclosure

As the author of Ashley Qurollo Blog, all opinions are my own. Any possible applications are universal in nature, not directed at any one individual or people group. My sincere desire is to help others by sharing what I am learning. Nothing stated on this blog is ever intended to hurt others. Ashley Qurollo, owner of Ashley Qurollo Blog and Website, is not held liable in any way for any application of the ideas and thoughts stated here.

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