For The Coziest Pot Roast You've Ever Had, Add This Comfort Food To The Pot (It's Heavenly)

To qualify as a comfort food, the ability to deliver a warm, cozy hug with every bite is a prerequisite. But some of these dishes have the ability to exponentially dial up that warmth when paired with a second comfort food. For example, a grilled sandwich dipped in a creamy tomato soup, or a fried chicken and waffles sandwich. This next tip falls into the same category. For the coziest pot roast you've ever had, add some dumplings to the pot. 

A pot roast and a dumpling soup are both top-class comfort foods in their own right, and they come together to make a truly heavenly combination. It's beef cooked to a melt-in-the-mouth consistency, served in a meaty gravy or broth, with soft, chewy dumplings bringing a load of carbs as well as textural variety to the dish.

And adding dumplings doesn't take too much extra effort, either. There's a whole world of pot roast recipes out there, and regardless of which you pick, the dumplings are quite easy to make. You could make a simple dumpling dough using all-purpose flour, baking powder, and water, or go for a classic mix of self-rising flour with cold butter, seasoning, and milk, before kneading. Next, you form the dumplings and drop them directly into the stew with the beef. This will give them ample time to soak in the meatiness as they cook. What you have is the perfect meal for a cold, winter day: Warm, hearty, and full of complementary flavors and textures.

Now, there's a school of thought that believes you shouldn't mess with things that aren't broken, but when it comes to food, we strongly feel there's always room for experimentation. This dish is no different. While combining a pot roast with simple dumplings does make for a fabulous dish, there are ways in which you can elevate this.

We already know that you can make a pot roast 10X more flavorful by giving it the German treatment (which translates to adding beer), so use this beer-braised delicacy as the base for your beef and dumplings roast. You could also add layers of flavor to the roast by introducing the right vegetables, from carrots and shallots to peas and parsnips.

The dumpling dough itself is a great base for running experiments. Give it a fresh twist by mixing in fresh herbs, like rosemary, chives, or thyme. Just think of flavors that sit naturally in a roast, and incorporate them into your dumpling dough, and you'll be on to a winning winter dinner. Watch this TikTok video for some dumpling and pot roast tips.