Healthy Pot Roast Recipes

This braised brisket gets a decidedly wintery feel from the earthy-sweet flavors of carrots, parsnips and rutabaga.

The eye of round is a lean, boneless cut of beef that's less expensive than a tenderloin or rib roast but just as delicious. It's best served medium-rare--when cooked to higher temperatures it can become tough. Topping it with a finger-licking-good horseradish sauce makes this roast beef holiday-worthy.

This tomato sauce gets its heat from Calabrian chiles.

Using a slow cooker means this simple crowd pleaser can be cooking while you're at work. A persillade is a mixture of parsely and other seasonings that adds flavor and pizzaz to a dish. Try this one, with Kalamata olives and zesty lemon peel over the roast garnished with lemon wedges.

This recipe is reminiscent of a pot roast made with onion-soup mix, but the flavors are true and pure--and nobody misses the excess sodium. (For a slow-cooker variation, see below.)

For this classic roast beef recipe, cremini or white mushrooms are delicious in the sauce. But if you want to get fancy, mix in some wild mushrooms, such as oyster, maitake or porcini.

With its comforting flavors contributed by savory meat, mushrooms, onions, carrots and fresh herbs, this slow-cooker braised beef is a wonderful supper on cold-weather days. Consider freezing it into portions for busy weeknight meals. You could also shred the meat and serve it on sandwiches.

This slow-cooker chuck roast is winter comfort food at its finest. A bright, slightly sweet sauce balances the rich and tender braised beef. You can substitute multi-colored baby potatoes (halved) for the Yukon variety and fresh fennel fronds for the parsley, if desired.

The fragrant aroma of star anise will welcome you home after this braise cooks throughout the day. Serve with rice or rice noodles.

A hearty beef and beans dish has Texas-sized flavor. Just put the ingredients in your slow cooker, press the button, and you're done until dinner time.

Spices and brown sugar combine to create a heavenly dry rub for this grilled beef tenderloin roast.

Corned beef is brisket that has been pickled in spices for days. You can buy it ready-to-cook or corn your own at home, but both are serious sodium bombs, packing more than 500 mg per 3-ounce serving--nearly 25% of the recommended daily limit. For this healthier pressure cooker corned beef and cabbage, we start with a plain brisket and add seasonings ourselves to control the salt level. We also opt for a flat-cut end of brisket, instead of the thicker point cut, as it has less fat, making it easier to slice when cooked. An electric pressure cooker, such as an Instant Pot, is absolutely key to this recipe, allowing you to cook the brisket in one hour--as opposed to three hours or more in the oven. It also lets you sear and roast in one device, saving cleanup time.