The Instant Pot is a real time and lifesaver for us. This Paleo + Whole30 Instant Pot pot roast (say that five times fast!) is a favorite of ours, especially once the weather turns chilly! It’s a hearty and cozy dinner the whole family will love!
But First, Sauté
When we are making a roast in our Instant Pot, we like to sauté the beef first. Browning the meat first really locks the juices in and makes the roast much more tender once it is done cooking. This Instant Pot pot roast is juicy, tender and it tastes like it took much longer to make. We typically make about a three pound roast, and sautéing for about 3-4 minutes per side does the trick for browning the meat, and then actual cooking time in the Instant Pot for that size of roast is 60 minutes. There are some tips for cooking larger roasts in the recipe card below.
Sweet Potato Or Squash
This Instant Pot pot roast recipe calls for sweet potato, but you have some alternate options. You can do white or orange sweet potatoes (you could even do white potatoes if you eat them), and you can also use your favorite winter squash if you avoid potatoes. Potatoes don’t jive well with my stomach, so we have made this Instant Pot pot roast with butternut and delicata squash in the past and it works just as well.
Go For The Fresh Herbs
Fresh rosemary and thyme are optional ingredients in this Instant Pot pot roast recipe, and we highly recommend them! Fresh herbs are a total game changer for flavor enhancement, and if you don’t already cook with them, definitely give it a try! Rosemary and thyme are a couple of our favorites, and we are also often using fresh oregano and basil as well. What are your favorites?
Your Turn To Try Our Instant Pot Pot Roast
Time to pull out your Instant Pot and make this Instant Pot pot roast. It’s a great large dinner to make Sunday night and then have the leftovers in the fridge for easy re-heating during the busy work week! Leave a comment below to let us know how it goes. Also, take a pic to share on Instagram! Tag us @realsimplegood, and give us a follow if you don’t already. We’d love to stay connected!
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Juicy Instant Pot Pot Roast (Paleo + Whole30)
Ingredients
For the seasoning:
- 2 tsp Italian seasoning
- 2 tsp onion powder
- 2 tsp garlic powder
- 2 tsp sea salt
- 2 tsp ground pepper
For the pot roast:
- 3 lbs beef pot roast, (or sub chuck or shoulder roast)
- 1 tbsp ghee, (or coconut oil for dairy free)
- 2 cups beef broth
- 2 medium sweet potatoes, (or sub equivalent amount of white potato or winter squash)
- 1 onion, chopped into thick pieces
- 6 celery ribs, chopped into thick chunks
- 6 carrots, chopped into thick rounds
- 3 sprigs fresh rosemary, removed from stems and finely chopped, (optional)
- 2 sprigs fresh thyme, removed from stems and finely chopped, (optional)
Instructions
- Make the seasoning mix by mixing all the ingredients in a small bowl. Generously season the roast on all sides. If you have leftover seasoning, add to top of veggies in Step 3 below.
- Prep potato, onion, celery, carrots and fresh herbs as noted.
- Press the sauté button on the Instant Pot and add ghee. Once hot, add in roast and brown on all sides (3-4 minutes per side). Press “cancel” button on Instant Pot once beef is browned.
- Pour in beef broth. Place potatoes, onion, celery and carrots over the top of the roast. Add in fresh herbs (optional) and any leftover seasoning.
- Secure the lid on the Instant Pot and close the pressure valve. Press “manual” button (or “pressure cook” button) and set the time for 60 minutes at high pressure. Once the time is up, let the pressure naturally release for 10 minutes and then carefully manually release the remaining pressure.
- Remove the veggies from the pot with a slotted spoon. Shred beef in the Instant Pot with 2 forks. Serve beef with veggies and spoon some sauce from the pot over the meat when serving.
Notes
I just made this recipe for the first time and it turned out amazingly tender and flavorful! The convection setting on my Instant Pot really made a big difference. Can’t wait to try more of your recipes!
Happy to hear that, hope you find some other favorites!
The flavor is delicious!! I’m still learning to use my Instant Pot. I read through the comments because I couldn’t imagine the vegetables taking as long as the meat. I cut each carrot into two pieces and cut each sweet potato in half. The potatoes ended up being mushy. I wouldn’t recommend cooking the vegetables with the meat. I do however, recommend the recipe for a chuck roast.
Thanks for the feedback. Yes, it’s a bit long to cook the veggies but we like having it all in one pot. Alternatively, you can roast the veggies in the oven while the beef cooks in the instant pot. We’ve done that before and it’s a good solution 🙂
This was good! I’d purchased sweet potatoes, onions, and baby bella mushrooms to go with a chuck roast we had in the freezer.
I found your recipe when looking for recommendations for the seasonings to use. This was a delightful mix of seasonings for the combo I had (no celery).
Thank you!
You’re welcome, glad you enjoyed the recipe!
I used grass fed 2 lb roast and lots of veggies! I add rutabagas and parsnips the 2 nd time I made it. I had it for 3-4 times for leftovers . Delicious! 😋
Glad you enjoyed it Ellen!
I made this today and followed the instructions. I was worried about mushy veggies so I only put the beef onions and potatoes in. Then after release added vegeis and this 5 more mins. As I feared the potatoes turned into mush. So glad I did not put carrots and celery. If I were to make again I would tell others to also not put potatoes and veggies.
Hi there! An hour seems like a really long time to cook!! I live in Canada and have an Eye of Round roast…most other recipes say a 5 min cook with a 2 hr NR. So I’m not sure if your recipe will work with my roast. Thoughts? Don’t want to ruin it…thanks!!
I’m sorry, I can’t vouch for other cuts of beef like eye of round which is very lean or times in other recipes. We tested this recipe several times and the time worked great.
This probably seems like a very dumb question, but just to be sure… is this recipe truly calling for celery stalks or does it actually call for celery ribs? My gut feeling is celery ribs as stalks seems like a lot, but just being sure.
Hi Sierra – it’s calling for 6 ribs and I just updated the recipe to be clear 🙂
Thank you!
You help doing Whole30. You make it so easy. Thank you so much for your website your recipes and your information on Whole30. It’s so much appreciated! Your recipes are awesome. I’m a big food prepper so your recipes come in super super handy. Thank you
Wow! That’s so wonderful hear! Thanks so much for taking the time to share how we’ve been able to help you. We appreciate hearing from you, and love that we get to be a useful resource for you. 🙂
So flavorful! I used a 2 lb shoulder roast and 2/3 of all the other ingredients, and I used Yukon gold potatoes instead of sweet potatoes (personal taste). I pressure cooked for 55 minutes. The meat was tender, moist, delicious and so plentiful that next time I will use more veggies and increase the broth accordingly.
That’s wonderful! So happy to hear you enjoyed it! Thanks for coming to let us know how it went! 🙂
The meat was (is, eating leftovers now!) deliciously seasoned and tender. Loving the broth as an extra!
My veggies were in large chunks but complete mush. If think the sweet potatoes and carrots lend some amazing flavor to the meat, so I don’t necessarily want to move them to the oven. What about adding them for the last half of cook time? Any ideas appreciated. Still learning my way around pressure cooking times.
Thanks!
Hey there! So happy you enjoyed this one! Thanks so much for coming back to share how it went!
It’s a debate about the veggies and them getting so mushy just thrown in with the rest of it. We haven’t played with trying to add them in during the last half because with the instant pot, it has to release and build pressure to do its thing. So, you’d have to stop the cooker, release the pressure, add the veggies, and then set it to cook again. It would then have to rebuild pressure and cook some more.
You can see how this kind of becomes more complicated to make sure the meat gets cooked fully but the veggies retain some of their form. Anyway, this works better in the slow cooker if you also have one of those because you can easily add veggies in after you get the rest cooking. And that way you can play around with how long to leave the veggies in to have the amount of crispness retained that you like. Hope that helps! 🙂
Ha! Yes you can’t beat the slow cooker for some dishes. Thanks!
I love this recipe! I couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve made it! I like to add sweet potatoes as well. Thank you so much for this delicious recipe!
You’re very welcome, thanks for coming back to leave a rating and review 🙂
This recipe was spot on. The vegetables were a bit soft so will cut them in larger pieces. The flavor was great. We added a bit more salt. I love that the recipe accounts for the time it takes for the Instant Pot to heat up.
Glad you enjoyed the recipe Peggy, thanks for taking the time to come back and leave a review.
I am in love with this recipe! I could not use beef broth, and just used water. With the seasoning blend and the other ingredients, you would never know the difference!!! It is fabulous. I used sweet potatoes, carrots and thinly sliced beets, and the flavor blew my mind. Thank you for sharing!!!
So happy to hear you enjoyed it! Thanks so much for giving our recipe a try and for coming back to share! 🙂
I’ve made this recipe several times! I grew up often eating pot roast for Sunday lunch and so this dish is a favorite of mine. This recipe is easy and healthy, yet it tastes very similar to those Sunday lunches of my childhood. The beef is wonderfully tender and the veggies make a great accompaniment. I typically save the leftovers in a big bowl with a portion of the broth so that I have “stew” ready to go for the following day’s lunch. Delicious!
So happy to hear this one hits the spot for you! And also that it’s reminiscent of your childhood. Thanks so much for visiting and sharing! We really appreciate your support here and on IG. 🙂
This recipe was spot on! The timing was just right and the directions very clear. If I had looked at all of the pictures prior to making this, I would have cut my vegetables in much larger pieces. The recipe does say thick pieces but I would make them really sick! They get a bit mushy. But they are so delicious in the broth and alongside the very tender and beautifully Seasoned meat that this is just a reminder to cut them big. Although I didn’t do it, I think whole cloves of garlic might be fun to toss in.
Glad you enjoyed the recipe Peggy! It’s a little extra work, but you could also roast the veggies in the oven if you want to avoid them getting mushy at all. I agree, some cloves of garlic would be an excellent addition 🙂
Was a winner in our home! We will definitely be making this again!
Whole family loved it. May need to go a bit heavier on the seasonings next time. It was easy and a big hit! Thanks!
You’re welcome!
Most flavorful pot roast ever! Love it!
This is our go to Sunday pot roast recipe. It tastes like you’ve been cooking all day but it is beyond simple and clean and oh so comforting. Leftovers for lunch taste even better, which is my favorite kind of recipe!
Agreed, the leftovers are the best :).
I have an Instant Pot and haven’t used it yet. When I’ve done my roast in a Crock Pot in the past, I’ve used Coke or Dr Pepper as the broth. Is it safe to use carbonated drinks in an Instant Pot?
Yes, it’s totally fine to use carbonated beverages in an Instant Pot.
I tried this recipe for the first time last week. The meat was super tough and the veggies were mushy:-/ I followed the directions exactly, used a 3 lb roast, cut my veggies the same size as in the picture and have the same Instant Pot that you used. I’m going to try it again, but leave the roast out on the counter for an hour with the seasoning on it. I also saw the suggestion to cut the roast up, so I will either do that or use a smaller size.
Sorry to hear that your roast turned out tough. Ours was fine but if yours was tough cutting it into 2 inch cubes will definitely help.
I made it again and cut the roast up into 5 large pieces, and also let it sit out on the counter for a bit, and it turned out perfect! I’m glad it worked for me this time. It’s a really flavorful recipe. Thank you!
So glad it turned out for you this time!
Hi would you recommend decreasing cook time for grass fed roast ?
No, I would recommend keeping the time the same.
Great flavor! Followed the directions and it was cooked perfectly! My Dad always cooked roasts in a stove top pressure cooker, and this recipe is the closest I’ve found to his.?
That’s so great to hear Holli!
There seems to be one overpowering ingredient that is a little overpowering. The onion or garlic powder. Anyone else experience this?
Easy to follow. In the Instant Pot and smells heavenly. The recipe does not specify how much beef broth is required. I guessed with 2 cups???
You’re right, it’s noted as 2 cups under ingredients. I hope you enjoyed the recipe!
after the 60 mins do you quick release?/vent
II just reread the directions…so don’t release the valve for 10 mins correct?
After the 60 minutes is up wait for 10 minutes and then quick release any remaining pressure.
After the 60 minutes is up wait for 10 minutes and then quick release any remaining pressure.
Can you do this recipe in a crockpot? Do not have a instant pot
You could cook it on low in the slow cooker for 8-10 hours. However, you’d want to add the veggies in just for the last 2 or so hours so they don’t turn completely mushy. We haven’t tried this, but that’s the best advice we’d have.
What size instant pot did you use for this recipe?
6qt. It’s the one linked in the recipe 🙂
Hello! I love this recipe! Would you by chance have the nutritional information? Thanks!
Hey there – we don’t track nutrition info on all of our recipes since we don’t track it personally. It’s one of our favorite things about our Paleo lifestyle. We really don’t worry about counting calories, fat, etc. because we are always eating real, minimally processed food. If needed, you could use an app or online calculator like myfitnesspal to get an estimate though if needed.
I’m out of beef stock. Can I use chicken? Or just Water?
Yes, chicken stock would work fine.
I made this last night exactly as written and my veggies were complete mush. The flavors were great. Wondering what I did wrong to make the veggie turn to liquid??
Next time you could try cutting your vegetables into larger chunks. That will help them cook more evenly with the roast.
Hello, I made this recipe and the meat ended up being quite tough. It was 3 pounds and I left it in for 60 minutes. Perhaps you can let me know what I can do to avoid this from happening next time? Thanks
You can try cutting the roast up into 2-3 smaller chunks before putting it in the instant pot.
Hi I want to try this recipe tonight. How long would I cook a 2 lb pot roast? Do I need to decrease the time?
For a 2 lb roast you should cook it for 50 minutes with a 10 minute natural release.
Why is the cook time 1 hour 50 minutes? It seems like it should be 1 hour and 25 at the most according to your instructions? Also, what can I let the pressure release naturally for a longer time? Thank you
Hi there – the instant pot can take up to 20 minutes to pressurize and it also takes time to shred the beef. These are included to the cooking time to give you a true picture of how long this will actually take to get this recipe on the table. If needed you can let the pressure naturally release for longer.
Do you cut does sweet potato into pieces like carrots are? How small did you cut your sweet potatoes? I don’t want my sweet potatoes to get mushy. Thank you
If you cut the veggies in fairly large chunks they shouldn’t get too mushy.
Question! Do I have to thaw out the beef roast first? or can I make it frozen?? Thanks!
You have the thaw the roast first for this recipe.
We made this tonight…the BEST pot roast I’ve ever had and I’m 24. Will definitely be making this again and again!!
That’s amazing! We’re so glad to hear you enjoyed it! Thanks for giving our recipe a try!
My very first instant pot experience and it’s fantastic! I would not be surprised to find the Mr sneaking a bowl for a midnight snack later after his super sized supper. Thank you for sharing
You’re welcome! So glad you enjoyed it 🙂
Do you peel and cube the sweet potato?
We didn’t peel it we just cubed it.
DELICIOUS!!! Soupy Pot Roast has been my favorite home cooked meal since childhood. This was spot on…just like mom’s!!!!
Yay!! We’re so happy you enjoyed it! Thanks so much for giving our recipe a try! 🙂