Vegan Pot Roast is a hearty, filling and comforting dinner for any day of the week. It is a one-pot meal that it is easy to make especially meatless. The variety of veggies as well as the large portobello mushroom caps will make it as a full course meal for the whole family.
So let’s talk about comfort food. If you need other inspiration for hearty, rich and delicious vegan comfort food for dinner, check out our Vegan Stew with Jackfruit Beef, or our Vegan Shepherd’s Pie or our Best Vegan Bean Chili recipes. Or maybe more portobello mushroom recipes? We love this Stuffed Vegan Portobello Mushrooms, this Vegan Portobello Mushroom Fajitas or this Vegan Portobello Mushroom Burger.
⇒ If you need an Easy 7-day VEGAN MEAL PLAN, click to download our free e-book with a shopping list.
What is in a vegetarian pot roast?
Meatless pot roast should be a slow cooked one-pot meal where all the veggies and meat substitutes (if any) are cooked in a wine-broth mixture. So no dairy and no eggs. What veggies you ask?
- Potatoes -> Classic. Must-have. If you use young potatoes, then you don’t even need to peel them, just wash them and cut them in half.
- Carrots -> Choose young small/medium carrots as they are sweeter than large, thick ones. The sweetest ones in my opinion is those where you can see the fresh, soft, young carrot greens, which by the way is also edible. On the other hand baby carrots might not be as sweet as you would hope them to be. According to my father-in-law (who is a gardener), baby carrots are actually the small parts that break off large carrots and then polished to look like smooth and well-shaped.
- Onion -> You definitely need onion, preferably red onion. No shallots or spring onion for sure.
These three veggies are a must have, but we love to spice it up a bit. And we ALWAYS add some more to have a larger variety of different textures and flavors like:
- Other root vegetables -> It is a nice that have a good mixture of different veggies. We love to add parsnip, turnip, rutabaga, celeriac or kohlrabi.
- Beetroot -> I can give you two reasons why you need beetroot in your vegan pot roast. For one, it deepens the colour of the sauce even further. And second, it is just so yummy with its earthy flavor.
Why did we add Portobellos to a pot roast?
The main ingredient of the Classic Sunday Pot Roast is a large chunk of beef braised and cooked in a slow cooker or Dutch oven. However, since we eat plant-based, we obviously don’t want to add that. Still, a rich, thick, hearty sauce can be quite comforting even on a sad, cloudy day. So what can we add instead of beef to make it even more filling and kind of beefy?
Large caps portobello mushrooms have a spongy, beefy, tough texture. It has also quite a neutral taste, so sauces and marinades can turn them deliciously hearty. But not too meaty that you can’t distinguish between the two. Not to mention whole foods plant-based all the way!
Of course, there are other options depending on whether you want the texture and the taste really close to meat or not at all like:
- tempeh (soy-based)
- seitan (wheat-based)
- jackfruit – it may be closer to beef chunks than roast
- whole cauliflower head
- vegan meat substitutes like Gardein, Beyond or other brands
How to make Vegan Pot Roast with Mushrooms
My husband cooked this vegan pot roast in our Dutch oven*. Don’t worry if you don’t have one, this recipe is absolutely perfect in any oven-safe stockpot or slow cooker too. We made it lots of times and will show you below step-by-step how to cook it.
Prepare the ingredients
Peel and slice onion, finely chop garlic. Wash, peel and chop potatoes, carrots, beetroot, and parsnip (unless you have young potatoes, carrots or parsnips, then no need to peel or chop, use them in whole). Rinse and dry mushrooms and take the stem out.
Let’s cook the pot roast
Heat your pot or Dutch oven to medium heat and add olive oil (photo #1). Cook the sliced onion (photo #2) for 1-2 minutes, then add the chopped garlic (photo #3). Stir and cook for another minute. Now, add the corn starch and the smoked sweet paprika powder (photo #4). Stir continuously and cook for 1-2 minutes. This is to activate the starch and deepen the flavor of the paprika. We want the sauce to be deep, rich and hearty. (Pay attention, not to let it burn as there is not much liquid at the moment.)
Add veggie broth, red wine, Worcestershire sauce (yes there are vegan and gluten-free sauces), and tomato paste (photo #5). Stir until combined. Add seasoning (basil, sage, rosemary, salt, and black pepper) (photo #6). Stir and bring it to boil. Add all veggies (mushroom caps, potato, beetroot, carrot and parsnip) (photo #7). Stir and cover it with a lid. Pre-heat oven to 375 Fahrenheit (190 degrees Celsius) and cook the veggies in the pot with a lid on for 1 +1/2 hours (photo #8).
How to thicken the sauce?
If after you take the pot out of the oven and you still feel that the stew is not thick enough, here is what you can do to thicken it. As we eat gluten-free, we chose to thicken it with corn starch. However, you can use all-purpose flour as well.
Use a separate bowl to mix the corn starch or flour (1 Tbsp at a time) and a bit of liquid from the stew. If it is thoroughly combined, you can add the mixture back. Stir vigorously for a couple of seconds. The corn starch or the flour is only activated (starts to thicken the stew) if it is heated, so bring the stew back to the stove to boil. You will see the result almost immediately. If you are not happy with the thickness, make another round.
Stockpot vs Dutch Oven
The Dutch oven is made of thick cast iron so it distributes and keeps the heat more evenly. And due to its enamel coating, it is more unlikely that anything is sticking to the bottom or burning down. While the stockpot is usually made of stainless steel or aluminium thus it is thinner. Therefore, you need to watch the heat more carefully to prevent burning if you boil all the liquid out of the pot or cook it in the oven where you cannot stir it that frequently.
Top tips to make perfect portobello pot roast
- Don’t chop veggies too small! -> If you chop veggies too small, it will be too soft or might even be mushy at the end. If I were to make a stew, I would dice all veggies, but since it is a pot roast I want the veggies to stand out. We recommend using small potatoes that you can just chop in half. And small/medium beetroot that you can chop into quarters. Also, young carrots and parsnips, when you don’t even need to peel or chop them, just cook them in whole.
- Why in the oven? -> You can certainly finish it on the stovetop. But why did we choose the oven? Well, because it kind of turns the Dutch Oven into a slow cooker or pressure cooker (especially since the lid is so heavy it will not be moved by steam easily) where all sides as well as the top radiate the heat. It will cook the veggies slower, leaving enough time for the sauce to really be absorbed. I dare to say this pot roast is even better the next day, when the veggies have even more time to age within the sauce.
This Vegan Pot Roast recipe is meat-free, dairy-free and egg-free. It is also suitable for vegan, vegetarian, nut-free and gluten-free diets. It can also be WFPB-friendly (whole foods plant-based) if you cook the onion and the garlic in water or veggie broth.
⇒ If you need an Easy 7-day VEGAN MEAL PLAN, click to download our free e-book with a shopping list.
More vegan dinner recipes
You can browse through our Vegan and Gluten-free Dinner Recipes or our Quick Vegan Meals collection or check out
- Vegan Spaghetti Bolognese
- Vegan Eggplant Meatballs Spaghetti
- Quinoa Sweet Potato Chili
- Vegan Lentil Lasagna
- Smoky Vegan Sweet Potato Soup
Portobello Vegan Pot Roast
Ingredients
- 1 Tbsp Olive oil
Vegetables
- 1 Onion (medium)
- 3-4 cloves Garlic (finely chopped)
- 4 Large portobello mushrooms
- 10 Potatoes (small) approx. 16 oz is 10 small potatoes
- 2-3 Beetroot (medium)
- 4 Carrots (small)
- 2 Parsnip (small)
Liquid ingredients
- 3 cup Veggie broth
- 1/2 cup Red wine
- 2 Tbsp Worchestershire sauce We listed here vegan and GF sauces.
- 3 Tbsp Tomato paste
Seasoning
- 1 Tbsp Rosemary (freshly chopped)
- 1 Tbsp Basil (freshly chopped)
- 1/2 tsp Sage (dried)
- 1 tsp Sweet smoked paprika powder
- Salt and Pepper to taste
- 1 Tbsp Corn starch or all-purpose flour
Instructions
Preparing the vegetables
- Peel and slice onion, finely chop garlic. Wash, peel and chop potatoes, carrots, beetroot, and parsnip (unless you have young carrots and parsnips, then no need to peel or chop, use them in whole). Rinse and dry mushrooms and take the stem out.
Making the pot roast
- Heat your pot or Dutch oven to medium heat and add olive oil. Cook the sliced onion for 1-2 minutes, then add the chopped garlic. Stir and cook for another minute.
- Now, add the corn starch and the smoked sweet paprika powder. Stir continuously and cook for 1-2 minutes. This is to activate the starch and deepen the flavor of the paprika. We want the sauce to be deep, rich and hearty. (Pay attention, not to let it burn as there is not much liquid at the moment. If it burns, it will be bitter.)
- Add veggie broth, red wine, Worcestershire sauce, and tomato paste. Stir until combined.
- Add seasoning (basil, sage, rosemary, salt, and black pepper). Stir and bring it to boil.
- Add all veggies (mushroom caps, potato, beetroot, carrot and parsnip). Stir and cover it with a lid.
- Pre-heat oven to 375 Fahrenheit (190 degrees Celsius) and cook the veggies in the pot with a lid on for 1 + 1/2 hours or until veggies are cooked and soft.
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