Beef Roast with Caramelized Carrots and Potatoes

If you’ve already been reading this series of posts you know the drill. First the quick recap: I found an awesome new cookbook, 6 Ingredient Solution, from America’s Test Kitchen. I’m testing and tweaking a week of recipes from the cookbook, and writing about it for you!

Day Six: Roast Beef Sirloin with Caramelized Carrots and Potatoes

The Original Recipe called for: fresh thyme, unsalted butter, red potatoes, carrots, boneless top sirloin roast, and vegetable oil. 

6 Ingredient Solutions noted that, ” You don’t need a long list of ingredients to make a truly great roast beef dinner.” And I totally agree. Simple, simple, simple, is actually a great way to go with a roast. I would argue that a good piece of meat and the correct cooking technique for your type of meat has more to do with your roast coming out wonderfully then anything.

• Now as you might imagine a high end cut of meat such as a Prime Rib, or Beef Tenderloin will be fantastic almost no matter what you do it, as long as you don’t over cook it. But these cuts of meat will run you a hefty price tag. You can easily expect $6.99-$10.99 /lb. for these cuts. 
• A Top Sirloin Roast, which is what 6 Ingredient’s recipe calls for, is a more moderately priced roast, running from $3.49- $ 6.99/lb. but as you can imagine this cut can still add up quickly for a large roast. On my grocery store trip to purchase meat for this recipe I noticed top sirloin roasts totaling $60-$100.  The plus side of this cut is that it’s still pretty darn tender, and again hard to mess up. 
• A Top Round Roast or Rump Roast is the next step down. However the price tends to be much better: $2.99-$4.99 /lb. Despite these cuts naturally being less tender then their more expensive counterparts with the right handling these roasts can come out flavorful, tender, and all around fantastic. 
• Now an important note to make: above I mention that a good piece of meat will really make your dish. This is true. But don’t mistake good for high end. You can get better quality meat or poorer quality meat in any cut. You may have noticed this phenomena yourself. Have you ever purchased the same cut of meat from two different stores and had dramatically different results to your final dish despite similar preparations? That’s quality of meat in action. 

So after going on and on about cuts of meat, I should share that I made this dish multiple times using two different cuts of meat. Once with a top sirloin and once with a top round roast (the photos are from the top round). I changed my cooking techniques slightly to best suit the cut of meat I was using but otherwise did the same thing with each roast. Otherwise the other ingredient I used were: russet potatoes, baby carrots, yellow onion, garlic cloves dried thyme, salt, pepper, brown sugar and maple syrup. 

• My method for the meat: was actually fairly similar to the original recipe, brown the meat in some way and then cook low and slow. For the top sirloin roast I more or less followed one of the standard roasting method. High heat for a short time (in the oven) to brown the meat and get a nice crust. Low heat for a longer time to cook the meat, choosing the final time based on the weight of the roast. (6 Ingredients has you do the browning on the stove and then transfer to the oven. This works just fine but I say skip the extra step and the extra pan!)
• I did something a little different for the top round roast. Like the sirloin I began with high heat for a short time and went for low heat for a longer time to finish the roast. But when I went to low heat I added chicken broth to the pan and covered the roast with tin foil, sealing the pan, to keep the moisture in for the remainder of the cooking time. Part roasting, part braising. (This is the secret to getting a tender final dish from a less expensive cut of meat: moisture!!!) 
• One change I did make in both dishes was to add onion (adds a great flavor) and to toss the carrots with a bit of brown sugar and maple syrup. So I ended up with roasted potatoes and caramelized maple carrots. 
• I dropped the butter sauce the original recipe called for completely and just used the drippings as a nice au jus. 
• The results: Both roasts came out great! Both were tender and juicy because of the slight adjustment in cooking methods. Yum and yum again! I actually served one roast for a large family dinner and it worked out so well. One pan. Veggies. Potatoes. Meat. Easy… but really polished, and so tasty. 

So I have to say I feel like this one is a keeper. It does take time, but honestly it is so uncomplicated considering how wonderful the final dish turns out. The original recipe in 6 Ingredients was excellent and could be made as directed, but I also love the version I came up with. As I said I served it for a family dinner and felt like it was just perfect, but I really didn’t have to fuss. I feel like the meal could only be improved by serving it with some nice bread or by having a wonderfully chocolaty desert afterwords. Ok maybe a nice glass of riesling too. Definitely give this one a try for your next Sunday family dinner… it’s a classic.