Slow Cooker Root Vegetable Pot Roast

Ingredients

• 1 head Cauliflower, left whole, leaves trimmed
• 4 cups Cremini mushrooms, halved
• 4 Yukon gold potatoes, quartered
• 4 Carrots, in big chunks
• 3 Parsnips, in big chunks
• 2 Yellow onion, quartered
• 6 cloves Garlic
• 3 tbsp Tomato paste
• 1 cup Dry red wine
• 3 cups Low-sodium vegetable broth
• 2 tbsp Low-sodium soy sauce
• 5 sprigs Fresh thyme
• 2 sprigs Fresh rosemary
• 2 Bay leaves
• 3 tbsp Extra-virgin olive oil
• 3 tbsp All-purpose flour
• 1 ½ tsp Kosher salt
• ⅜ cup Flat-leaf parsley

Method

1. Brown the mushrooms and quartered onions hard in the oil in a skillet, 10 minutes. Add the tomato paste and fry it 2 minutes until brick-colored.
2. Deglaze with the wine and let it bubble 3 minutes. That step cooks off the raw alcohol a slow cooker never will.
3. Put the root vegetables in the cooker, sit the whole cauliflower on top, and pour the skillet contents plus broth, soy sauce, herbs and salt around it.
4. Cook on low 7 hours. The cauliflower comes out carvable with a spoon.
5. Lift everything onto a platter. Whisk the flour with 1/2 cup of the cooking liquid, stir it back in, and cook on high 15 minutes to thicken into gravy.
6. Carve the cauliflower into wedges, pour the gravy over, and finish with parsley.

Notes

✨ The restaurant touch

Browning and deglazing in a skillet before anything goes in the cooker is fifteen minutes and about eighty percent of the flavor.

🧒 For the kids

Roots braised this long go sweet. Serve the gravy over everything and let them eat the potatoes and carrots.

🥡 Leftovers

Keeps 4 days. Blend leftovers with the gravy into an excellent soup.

Per serving

Computed from USDA FoodData Central values. A planning tool, not medical advice.