Fennel Pot Roast

Yummy! One of my favorites. Fennel pot roast, mashed potatoes, and roasted squash.

The roast is from Homestead Farms. It's about 3 1/4 pounds. It's a beef chuck roast.

My awesome husband chopped the veggies when he came home for lunch today! What a great surprise! The chopped veggies are a pound of carrots, a couple cups of pearl onions, and 2 fennel bulbs.

A couple tablespoons olive oil in a dutch oven (if you don't have one, you just need any large pot that is oven proof. I love my all my cast iron!). Med-high heat.

Pat the roast dry.

1 tblsp dry thyme and 1 tsp. salt. Rub half of this mix on each side of the roast.

Rub with olive oil.

Add the roast to the hot oil.

You want to brown both sides. About 8 minutes per side.

Remove the roast from the pan and set aside.

This is what is in the pan. Olive oil and drippings from the roast.

Fennel, carrots, and pearl onions.

Add the veggies to the pot.

Salt and pepper.

Stir and cook for 8 minutes.

A lot of garlic. Some for the roast, squash, and potatoes.

Add 1/3 of the garlic to the pot.

2 bay leaves

1 cup cooking sherry

4 cups broth

Add the roast

Bring to a boil. Cover with a lid and put in the oven at 350.

Those are roasted beets for The Moose. My 3+ pound roast cooked for 2 hours.

And this is what was going on in the bedroom while the roast was cooking.

While that was cooking, I made a snack pack for The Moose. Squash, apples, basil, garlic, and coconut oil (everything but the apples & oil from Cardo's Farm Project) and a side of goat cheese.

When you have about 30 minutes left on the roast (after it's been cooking 1.5 hrs), boil some salted water.

Roughly chop some potatoes. I'm a skin-on potato masher. I like the extra texture. But you are welcome to peel them if that's your preference.

Add to the water and boil for about 15-20 minutes until soft.

These are some squash from Cardo's Farm Project. Aren't they awesome?! Slice them.

Put in an oven proof skillet. Add garlic.

A couple spoonfuls of coconut oil. Find my favorite coconut oil here.

Salt and pepper.

Oregano. Add to the oven with the roast. They need to cook about 20 minutes.

Checking on the roast. It needs to stay covered with liquid. So add more broth as needed. I added about 3/4 cup.

That's the tators boiling.

Heat 4 tblsp. butter over med-low heat.

Add garlic. This is for the potatoes. Saute for 2-3 minutes.

Drain the potatoes.

Add the garlic butter.

I had about 1/2 cup cream. I added that. You can use milk, cream, sour cream, whatever.

Mix. I used the immersion blender, but a regular hand blender works just fine.

 Add salt and pepper.

I added some milk because it needed more liquid.

When the roast falls off the bone and is easy to fork off a piece, it's ready!

Remove the roast from the pot.

Blend the veggies. This is the best gravy you will ever ever ever eat!! Sometimes, I pull out half the veggies so we have some solid vegetables. But since I mashed potatoes, I needed more gravy.

Reserve some of the gravy for the potatoes.

Shred the wonderful roast.

Add it back to the gravy.