Fail-Proof Instantpot Pot Roast

The next couple of recipes I post are all an attempt at leaving you feeling nourished and sustained. This time of year, there's a natural desire to clean up our diets with all of the treats and over-indulgences of the holidays. I love indulging this time of year, but the stress and lack of sleep of the holiday season paired with the less than ideal diet choices leaves me wanting to clean up my act the first few days of January. It's always a bit challenging though, because winter seems to call for warmth and sustenance and it can be easy to feel like we need to restrict ourselves after indulging. This is how I fell in love with the Paleo approach many years ago, there is no focus on deprivation and instead focus on nutrition density, food quality, and how your body feels.

Meat is a hot topic right now, with so many people and businesses touting the benefits of meatless diet. I disagree with the idea that our bodies and our planet are better off without meat, but instead think that we ought to be focusing on how we farm and produce our meat. Meat is very bioavailable nutrition, much cheaper "bang for your buck" for those struggling with food insecurity, and more widely accessible in areas considered food deserts. There are many brilliant minds out there that delve into this topic with much more expertise than me, and I suggest you check out Diana Rodgers and her podcast and blog the, "Sustainable Dish." However, I want to add that I think adults are fully capable of feeding themselves in a responsible way for their own bodies. If you can avoid meat and thrive, I am all for it! This is a judgement-free zone and no one is perfect. There isn't only one way to do things, and certainly no one size fits all diet. I wanted to add these thoughts because there was a time in my life where I accidentally deprived my body of nutrition that I needed, when I thought I was doing the "healthy" thing. For me, it was fat that I avoided like the plague. But, it seems now that we are being informed that we ought to be avoiding meat, and I hope to push back on that a bit here. No matter your stance on meat, I think we can all agree that absolutely everyone needs to increase vegetable consumption!

I wanted to fill your social media feeds with recipes that warm you up from the inside out, and leave you feeling nourished and satisfied... is there anything that screams all of that more than a pot roast?! I usually like to do my pot roasts in a crock pot or an instant pot, because they call for a slow and low roast. It just usually works out better for me to make it in an appliance I don't need to worry about too much. The instant pot makes it in a similar way to the crock pot, but faster. Either way, this is a perfect recipe for our current work-from-home lifestyles, and in normal times I love to make this meal on a weekend. Nothing beats putting your ingredients into a contraption, going to do something fun with your family, and coming back to yummy food!

I'm not a fan of the mushy vegetables that usually accompany pot roast, so I work around that by adding them at the end and tacking on 10 more minutes on the instant pot. In a crock pot, you can add them with 2-3 hours remaining.

To make the gravy, pour all the pan dripping into a pitcher while you're carving your meat. Allow the fat to float to the top, and after about 15 minutes you can skim it all off and use the remaining for your gravy.

The other secret to pot roast is the way you carve it. Even if you cook it perfectly, if you cut your meat with the grain (instead of against it) it will be hard to chew and seem like a dud roast. To cut against the grain, observe the natural lines in the meat. They should run mostly in the same direction, called the grain. Cut perpendicular against that grain for tender slices of meat.

This is a recipe you'll want to commit to memory, or save away some place safe! Nothing beats a warm pot roast dinner, and having leftovers for lunch the next day doesn't hurt either!