This Slow Cooker Beef Joint recipe is the easiest and most delicious pot roast. Pop your meat and vegetables in to stew in the morning and then just thicken the gravy before serving. So tasty.
However chaotic life gets during the week, I do LOVE a Sunday roast. Don’t you?
There’s something about the ritual of sitting down together and eating a roast dinner, that never fails to warm my cockles.
I thought I’d share one of my favourite and easiest ways to cook a roast dinner – Slow Cooker Roast Beef. (Technically it’s not a ‘roast’ as it’s not cooked in the oven, but it still FEELS like a ‘roast’ to me as it’s a joint of meat.)
This Slow Cooker Beef Joint is a winner and here’s why:
- Topside beef is a great value joint.
- This roast beef takes hardly any preparation.
- It magically creates gravy as it cooks.
FAQs about the Slow Cooker Roast Beef recipe
How do you cook beef in a slow cooker?
To make this easy Slow Cooker Beef Joint recipe, sprinkle flour, thyme, garlic powder and salt and pepper on to a chopping board.
Dry your topside of beef well with kitchen roll and turn it over the flour mixture until it is well coated.
Now, heat the oil in a frying pan and brown the joint of beef all over ensuring, each side is coloured. This seals flavour into the meat.
Remove the meat from the pan and add: garlic, onions, and carrots and cook for five minutes until they begin to soften.
Now, put the meat and vegetables into the slow cooker pan.
Finally, pour over a can of beef consommé, and add in a beef stock pot (or crumble a stock cube in).
I used a tin of Beef consommé in this recipe. (Consommé is basically a clear stock/broth/soup.) It is a perfect cheat for making sauce or gravy for beef based dishes. It gives you a rich dark gravy, and as it is tinned can last in the cupboard for ages meaning its always handy.
Cook on HIGH for 5 hours, or LOW for 7.
TIME SAVING TIP: My slow cooker pan can be used directly on the hob, check if yours does to, it saves time, and washing up. This is the one I have:
I haven’t tried heaps of slow cookers, but I LOVE this one as I can use just one pan to quickly sear and cook.
The pan is also super light which I love.
How do you make Slow Cooker Roast Beef Gravy?
This slow cooker roast beef gravy is so easy.
Remove the beef and as many whole carrots as you can from the slow cooker.
Now mix cornflour with a little of the cooking liquid until it makes a paste. Put back into the gravy, stir through and cook for a little longer.
WHAT TO SERVE WITH SLOW COOKER ROAST BEEF:
- Roast Potatoes (of course!)
- Cauliflower cheese (sometimes I add some broccoli too)
- Yorkshire puddings
Often if I do a midweek roast, I won’t do all the trimmings just some simply cooked vegetables and mash or sautéed potatoes – all of the comfort, less of the hassle.
OR for Leftovers of the Slow Cooker Beef Joint:
- Leftover slow cooker beef makes the best sandwiches. For maximum taste reheat the meat in your left over gravy and this keeps it moist. (It should stay fresh kept in the fridge for up to 3 days). Serve in sliced bread or bread rolls.
- I often serve leftovers of this with Orzo pasta, super quick to cook and soaks up the gravy beautifully.
TIPS FOR MAKING THIS RECIPE:
- Make sure that you dry the topside of beef as much as possible before rolling in the flour mixture. A drier piece of meat will brown better, and more quickly.
- Often recipes say there is no need to brown your beef but when browning meat something called the Maillard reaction takes place and it does add depth of flavour. However, it really isn’t the end of the world if you don’t have time to do this step, you will still end up with a tasty roast.
- To make this recipe gluten free, simply substitute the plain flour for a gluten free version, like cornflour.
- You will have lots of gravy so you can freeze any leftovers. FREEZER SPACE SAVING TIP: Pour the gravy into freezer bags and freeze it flat!
More slow cooked recipes?
Hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we do. I’d love to know how you got on and what you thought of it if you make this recipe. Please rate the recipe using the ⭐️ by the recipe.
Also, if you’d like to show me a photo by tagging me on Instagram (@tamingtwins) I LOVE to see your creations.
Slow Cooker Beef Joint with Rich Pot Roast Gravy
Ingredients
- 1.5 kg Beef Topside joint
- 2 tbsp Plain flour
- 1 tbsp Dried or fresh thyme
- 1 tbsp Garlic powder
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1 tbsp Olive oil
- 3 Cloves Garlic Peeled and chopped/crushed
- 2 Large Onions Peeled and cut into chunks
- 3 Large Carrots Peeled and chopped into chunks
- 400 g Beef consommé soup See Note 1.
- 1 beef stock pot
- 3 tbsp Cornflour
Instructions
- Sprinkle your flour, thyme, garlic powder and salt and pepper onto a chopping board. Dry off your topside with some kitchen paper and then roll all over in the flour mixture.
- Heat your oil in a large frying pan, or if your slow cooker allows it, by putting the cooking dish onto the hob. Brown off the flour coated meat on all sides.
- Remove the meat from the pan and add the garlic, onions and carrots and brown for 5 minutes until starting to soften. If you're using your slow cooker pan, add the meat back in. If you're using a frying pan, transfer everything to your slow cooker pan.
- Pour in the tin of beef consommé and add a beef stock pot.
- Cook on HIGH for 5 hours or LOW for 7 hours.
- When cooked, remove the meat to a pan, along with the whole cooked carrots and onions (as many as you can fish out!).
To make the gravy:
- Remove a small amount of the liquid from the pan and stir in the cornflour until it dissolves. Add a small amount at first and stir in, keep adding until you get a thick paste.
- Add this 'slurry' back into the pan and stir. You can leave this in your slow cooker on HIGH for about 30 minutes, or if your pan is able to go on the hob, pop onto the hob to bubble for 10 minutes until thick.
Notes
Nutrition
This recipe was first published on March 29 2019 and updated with new photos and extra tips on November 28 2020.
Helen layton says
Hi , could you cook this in a Casserole dish in the oven? Thanks Helen
Sarah Barnes says
Yes, I should think so, just make sure you cook it long and slow!
george parkinson says
Thanks Helen, tried this Sat 19th it was just meltingly delicious
Gemma says
This looks great, going to try today. Just wondered how long think a small piece of beef would need, its 600g ( just 2 of us today!) thanks – u seem to be a slow cooker expert!
Paul McNicholas says
Idiot proof and delicious. The gravy is lovely. Will be a regular, go to recipe!
David Rock says
Simmering away in the slow cooker as I type. Didn’t have consomme so I have used a high quality belgian beer and some beef stock. Smells fantastic and just a little bit of beer left over for me!!!
Kelly says
What can I use if I have no beef consommé please?
Sarah Barnes says
Beef stock will be okay too. Enjoy.
Tara says
1 or 2 stock cubes if no consommé? Thank you
Lisa says
The best beef we have ever cooked!! The whole family loved it, so tender, fantastic recepie… thank you x
Fiona says
Absolutely fabulous recipe. Cooked this evening – a real crowd pleaser. The gravy was utterly divine. Served with roasties, parsnips, Yorkshire pudd and veg. Will definitely make again. Melt in the mouth beef. Thank you
Emma Summers says
Cooking as we speak ready for our New Year’s Day dinner.
Thank you for all of your fabulous recipes
Marian says
Cooked this last week, husband said it was the best slow cooked beef he had ever eaten, even the next day, was lovely & tender perfect on sandwich’s, cooking it again tomorrow 😁 fantastic recipe, I’ve tried a few over the years & this is THE BEST x
Michelle says
Delicious sarah so easy to make!
Connah says
Heavily rotated in our family! Beautiful beefy flavours. We serve with potatoes or rice. We love this!
Julie says
So glad I found this recipe. We do all our Sunday beef roasts in the slow cooker now. A real winner with the family.
My mom is gluten free unfortunately the beef consommé isn’t gluten free so trying to find an alternative to this for her to try. Trying other recipes out this week. Thank you x x
Salford says
For the beef in gravy did you slice the beef uncooked or cooked ?? Please
Sarah Barnes says
Cooked!
Heidi says
I’m cooking this today but am unsure of one thing, I’ve bought topside and it has netting and a layer of fat on there. Looking at it it looks easy enough to remove. I haven’t and just followed the recipe regardless. Should I have removed the netting and fat first?
Sarah Dowley says
Love this! I have a tiny oven and this frees up the oven space for all the trimmings. I’ve made over a dozen times and it’s never failed. My kids prefer this slow cooked type meat to a traditional roast. I usually use brisket.
Emma Lockett says
The easiest, most tastiest beef dish! A real winner in our house and family and friends love it too! We personally prefer it made with beef stock rather than the consommé but that’s just our opinion!
Sarah says
Cooked this the other evening…absolutely delicious! The beef was lovely and juicy, the veg was tasty and the gravy was something else. I used the beef consommé in mine and served with dauphinoise potatoes…a great recipe and so easy.
Kelly says
My husband and I absolutely love this recipe! I struggle with roasts usually, being disabled, and I love how easy this one is! We’ve had it twice now and are looking forward to having it again soon. Also pleasantly surprised to easily find the beef consommè in Tesco!
Kim Motte says
Absolutely delicious! So easy and minimal fuss and the beef cooked beautifully!
The consommé was a total surprise hit for gravy. Being gluten intolerant, I don’t have gravy and don’t like the GF stuff.
This was absolutely delicious and all the tasty bits left in the gravy.
Won’t cook a beef joint any other way from now on!
Esther says
Absolutely gorgeous!
Marie Devlin says
Really lovely
Ended up with to much left over
Can it be freezed
Sarah Rossi says
Yes it freezes really well in the gravy!