Pot Roast Soup

Second of my culinary blogs - cooking is a safe and happy place for me - so hopefully it will provide a safe and happy place for some of those reading this.

I love pot roast.  Always have.  It is a dish I never learned to cook small though, so whenever I make a pot roast it is at least twelve servings, so usually six meals for my husband and I.

I use a three pound sirloin tip roast, and after the first cooking, we eat for two nights, and then I freeze the leftovers in two containers, so that we have two more two night meals.

Here is the basic pot roast recipe:

3 pound sirloin tip roast
2 medium onions, peeled left whole
8 ounces sliced baby bella mushrooms
8 ounces sliced button mushrooms
12 ounces peeled baby carrots
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 package italian salad dressing mix
1 package ranch dressing mix
Olive oil

Brown roast in olive oil on all sides, place in crock pot.  Sprinkle roast with italian dressing mix, turn over.  Put garlic on roast, then sprinkle with ranch dressing mix.  Add all vegetables, and then enough water to cover.  Cook on low for 6 hours.

Take meat out and separate into three large pieces.  Then keep one large piece out and separate into four servings.  Serve meat with carrots and mushrooms, and a piece of onion if you like it.

You'll notice there are no potatoes.  Watching the carb thing.  I used to always put potatoes for my husband, but this time he decided to go low carb too.

So, we ate twice the first week, and I partitioned up the rest and put it in the freezer in two separate containers.  It seemed like I had an awful lot of broth, and very little vegetables, so I decided I would need to add more vegetables for the next round.

So, last week, we had round two.  I added another 8 ounces of baby bella mushrooms, and another 12 ounces of baby carrots.  We ate two more nights.  I had about a quarter of an onion, and some beef, and some carrots and very little mushrooms left in a lot of broth.

So, I made pot roast soup.  I strained the mixture into a pan, then I put the onion in the pan and used a stick blender to puree the onion.  If you like onion soup, you would love this broth.  If you don't like onion soup, I guess you could throw away the onion.  Then I chopped up all the rest of the stuff, and added some leftover Jazz Man rice I had in the refrigerator.  And then I added a generous squirt of ketchup.  (Sounds crazy - I know - but trust me).

My goodness!  It was absolutely fabulous!  I had lunch two days on my pot roast soup.  I can't really describe how good this soup was.  I will make it every time I make pot roast now.

And I almost just fished out the rest of the debris and threw the broth away.  But I hate waste.  So I experimented, and found a new favorite food.

Here's to experiments that turn out well and the excitement it brings when they do.