This is my favorite pot roast recipe.  I had small potatoes and whole carrots from the past few weeks’ CSA boxes and this was the meal I had been waiting for.

I started with:

• 2-2.5 lb. rump roast
• salt                                     Salt and pepper the roast, then heat olive oil in a large cast iron
• fresh ground pepper       pan and brown all sides of the roast.  Set the browned roast
• 1 t. olive oil                       in the crock pot.

Spray the pan with cooking spray, and add:

• 1 c. chopped onion

Cook the onion until soft, then add:

• 1 c. beef broth
• 3/4 c. dry red wine*
• 1/3 c chopped sun dried tomatoes
• 1/4 t. crushed red peppers
• 4 sprigs fresh thyme
• 4 garlic cloves, crushed
• 2 bay leaves

* I just picked up my wine club shipment from one of our local wineries.  Using award winning reds for a roast may seem a bit uneconomical, but the roast tastes fabulous!

Bring this mixture to a simmer, then add to the crock pot with the roast.

• small potatoes
• small whole carrots                           Arrange the vegetables around the roast.
• large carrots cut into 1″ pieces        Cover and cook on high for 2 hours.

I had some small whole carrots from my CSA boxes, but I knew that wasn’t going to be enough carrots for our family.  I left about 1/2″ of greens on the top of the whole carrots which were a lighter color and only about 4-5 inches long.

After 2 hours, I turned the crock pot to low, and cooked until my son insisted he was starving to death, about another 2 hours.

Now, here is the weird part that turned out really good, the gremolata.  I had a small bok choy left that I wanted to use up.  I chopped the green parts up and mixed it with 1 t. minced garlic and 1/2 t. lemon zest.  I sprinkled this over the roast and vegetables before serving and it was great!  The lemon scent and flavor really came through and was a good complement to the bok choy.

The sun dried tomatoes add a lot of flavor (and of course that wonderful red wine :)).