Making it Up as I Go: Pot Roast

I was out of town last weekend, and Nate had to come up with some dinner ideas on his own. For Monday night dinner, he took a pork pot roast out of the freezer. We had bought it at the West Allis Farmer's Market a while ago from one of our favorite local, free-range meat vendors. We didn't follow a recipe--we just used what vegetables we had leftover from CSA boxes.

Here's what we did:

Crockpot Pot Roast and Vegetables

-1 pot roast (maybe three pounds? I forgot to look ...)

-1 potato, cubed

-3 carrots, peeled and chopped

-2 leeks, sliced

-3 beets, peeled and cubed

-3 small parsnips, peeled and cubed

-3 cloves garlic, sliced

-salt and pepper to taste

-1 bottle beer

-water

Place pork at bottom of crockpot. Cover with veggies. Pour bottle of beer over everything.

Pour in enough water to cover much of the vegetables. Season to taste. Cook all day on low.

That's it! It was very easy. It was pretty tasty--very hearty, filling and healthy. When it was done cooking, we took out the vegetables, put them in a separate bowl, and took the meat and separated it. This was, we got all of the flavors combined. We also scooped out some of the liquid and served it over the meat and veggies.

It's a nice way to use up any vegetables you need/want to get rid of. Next time, I would season it more--add some garlic powder, some more salt and pepper and maybe thyme, oregano and/or sage. We served it with some made-up Parmesan garlic bread on the side.