This Vegetarian Portobello Pot Roast recipe can be made easily in the slow cooker or Instant Pot (pressure cooker). And it’s SO hearty and comforting and delicious!
As a Midwestern girl through and through, I’ve gotta admit, I will always love me a good pot roast. But hey, whoever said that had to include roast beef?
A few weeks ago, when I found myself with two leftover cartons of baby bella mushrooms in the fridge that needed to be used up stat, I decided to try swapping them in as the main ingredient in my traditional pot roast recipe. And lo and behold, they turned out to be a plant-based swap made in heaven. This vegetarian pot roast recipe was a total winner!
It’s still full of those classic savory flavors (and garlicky gravy) that we all love. It’s quick and easy to prep, and easy to make either on the stovetop or in the slow cooker or Instant Pot. It’s naturally vegetarian and vegan. And it’s totally, wonderfully delicious.
My kind of comfort food.
To make the recipe, start by gathering lots of your starring ingredient — portobello mushrooms. You’re welcome to use full-size portobellos if you’d like. Or, you can be like me and just use a few cartons of baby bellas. Chop them up into bite-sized pieces…
…then combine them in a slow cooker or pressure cooker, along with some potatoes, carrots, pearl onions, garlic, and all of the ingredients for that classic savory gravy. Cook until the potatoes are nice and tender. Then for a final step, thicken that gravy up a notch…
…and voila! This delicious veggie-filled mushroom pot roast will be yours to serve and enjoy!
I went old-school and served mine over some egg noodles, but some grains or rice would also work well here. I served mine up with this simple salad and some red wine, and the meal was perfection.
Vegetarian twist for the win!
Vegetarian Portobello Pot Roast
Ingredients
- 1.25 pounds Yukon gold potatoes, cut into bite-sized pieces
- 1 pound baby bella mushrooms (if they are large, cut them in half)
- 2 large carrots, peeled and cut into bite-sized pieces
- 2 cups frozen pearl onions*
- 4 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
- 3 sprigs fresh thyme
- 3 cups vegetable stock, divided
- 1/2 cup dry red or white wine
- 3 tablespoons tomato paste
- 2 tablespoons vegetarian Worcestershire sauce*
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- Kosher salt and freshly-cracked black pepper
- optional garnish: finely-chopped fresh parsley
Instructions
Slow Cooker Method:
- Add potatoes, mushrooms, carrots, onions, garlic, thyme, 2.5 cups vegetable stock, wine, tomato paste and worcestershire together in the bowl of a crock pot, and gently toss to combine. Cook on low for 6-8 hours, or on high for 3-4 hours, until the potatoes and carrots are tender.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the remaining 1/2 cup vegetable stock and cornstarch until combined. Add to the roast mixture, and gently toss to combine. Continue to cook for 1-3 minutes, until the sauce thickens up a bit.
- Serve immediately, garnished with fresh parsley if desired.
Instant Pot Method:
- Add potatoes, mushrooms, carrots, onions, garlic, thyme, 2.5 cups vegetable stock, wine, tomato paste and worcestershire together in the bowl of a pressure cooker, and gently toss to combine. Close lid securely and set vent to “Sealing”.
- Press “Manual”, then press “Pressure” until the light on “High Pressure” lights up, then adjust the up/down arrows until time reads 20 minutes. Cook. Then let the pressure release naturally, about 15 minutes. Carefully turn the vent to “Venting”, just to release any extra pressure that might still be in there. Remove the lid.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the remaining 1/2 cup vegetable stock and cornstarch until combined. Add to the roast mixture, and gently toss to combine. Continue to cook for 1-3 minutes, until the sauce thickens up a bit.
- Serve immediately, garnished with fresh parsley if desired.
Notes
Did you make this?Let me know how it turned out in the comments below!
This was absolutely amazing! Perfect vegetarian comfort food!
This was really good. Even my meat eating husband agrees. At first I was not sure but by the time I was done I was soaking up all the juice with bread!! So good!
I liked the taste, but it did not thicken into a gravy. I used the instant pot version (which doesn’t have the tomato paste listed for some reason? I did add the paste as per the slow cooker instructions). I ended up adding a third tablespoon of cornstarch and still couldn’t get any thickening. I told my kids it was a soup :)
Delicious! even with some accidental changes! i didn’t have wine or corn starch, so i skipped the wine and used a little flour. was delicious out of the pot, BUT i have an addiction to white pepper so i added a little and it was just the thing for me. excited to try prior reviewer’s suggestion for rutabaga and turnip, may also replace carrot with parsnip and see how that goes. great recipe that seems to have great flexibility! thank you!
I just made this using an Instant Pot pressure cooker for the 1st time. Delicious.
I’d like to do it again to see what may change. Consistency wise. Perhaps I won’t need to reduce next time.
This time around, I chose to transfer the finished product to a pot on the stove to simmer out some liquid. I wanted to thicken it without more cornstarch. Just my preference. This is when I added pepper and salt. I have to get more comfortable with the pressure cooker.
It was so incredibly good. I know this because my husband went for seconds! He’s not a huge eater and he’s a chef. So I had the biggest internal smile! Thanks!
I plated mine over red mashed potatoes. Disclaimer: We add A LOT of butter to our mash, so when the “Pot roast” gravy melted into the butter….heaven.
This is definitely a keeper recipe!!
And, to anyone who needs to cut the recipe down, we like to cook extra and batch out some to freeze for quicky meals. This is a perfect recipe to freeze.
Recipe is perfect! However, I did substitute 1.25 pounds of peeled and diced rutabagas and turnips for the potatoes since I do not eat potatoes. I also added some chopped celery. Skipped the wine and Worcestershire sauce but used low sodium veggie broth and it was perfect. Thank you for a great recipe.
Made this tonight and it turned out AMAZING! Did it in the Instapot – followed the instructions, but also took some of the suggestions of others to put on “saute” for the last part and it thickened right up. Delicious. It’s going in my family’s recipe rotation for sure!
I made this and it was outstanding! Only changes: I had no wine, and subbed the pearl onions with one sliced Vidalia onion (which was divine, all melty and carmelized). I also added some seitan for heft, too. So easy and scrumptious. Served with foccacia. Plenty of leftovers for the week. Thank you for the easy keeper!
I don’t use alcohol. Any substitution suggestions?
Absolutely loved this recipe. Making it again but have added soaked, dried shitake mushrooms and some beautiful oyster mushrooms for some added texture and extra umami. Thanks