I prefer not to try new dishes for food gatherings, but we were hosting a potluck on a Friday and that leaves little time to prepare anything fancy, so I turned to my slow cooker for guidance! I figured the easiest way to satisfy a crowd was with a massive quantity of beef, so I bought an entire eye round roast weighing in at 5.8 lbs. I chose a few favorite beef-accompanying ingredients like mushrooms, sweet onions and red wine, and took some suggestions from others to create the all-around-perfect beef dish. It reminds me of an album from the group Infected Mushroom called “Converting Vegetarians”. Great album, although the name is better applied to this recipe – it’s that good. Since this is a very lean cut of meat it’s very tender but a little dry inside – which works in perfect harmony with the half gallon or so of gravy this recipe makes alongside.
5-7 lb eye round roast, trimmed of fat
1 vidalia or sweet onion, thin slices and cut in quarters
1 cup red wine
1 (16oz) can low-sodium beef broth
2 (10oz) cans cream of mushroom soup
20-30 baby carrots, halved
1 package onion soup mix
Directions:
1. Mix all of the ingredients, except for the beef, in a crockpot at least 5.5 quarts in size. Once they are well mixed, place the beef in and attempt to submerge entirely in liquid. Cut the beef into 2 or more pieces if necessary. Turn on low for 8-10 hours.
2. Use tongs and a fork to pull off chunks of meat and serve. Take a large cooking spoon and cover each serving with a few spoonfuls of the gravy, carrots and onions. Leftovers can be frozen but I’ll soon share the best way to use that leftover beef.
This next picture occurred after the beef in the picture above was pressed down with a spoon and smothered in gravy.