Eye Round Roast for the weeknight (and week!)

Yesterday, after much confusion, I found myself standing in front of the meat counter at Whole Foods having absolutely no idea what was for dinner.

I must have stood there for a while because a clerk approached me and told me that eye round roast was what was for dinner.

Here is what I knew about eye round roasts at that moment in time:

1) It is beef.

2) It is delicious.

3) It takes hours to cook because as a tough piece of meat, it needs to relax.

I usually marinate eye round in an acid (balsamic, red wine...) over night and then cook it for 500 degrees for 10 minutes before turning off the oven and threatening anyone who thinks about opening the oven over the next 2.5 hours with their lives, as the roast cooks in the residual heat.

I didn't have the energy or time for that, but I couldn't think of anything better. I took the 1.5 lb slab of beef, grabbed some asparagus and lettuce and trudged out of the store.


I let the roast come to room temperature while the oven preheated to 450.

Then I rubbed the roast with some salt and pepper. When the oven came to temp, I tossed the roast into the middle and cooked it for 10 minutes (uncovered). I then cut the heat down to 350 and let the roast cook for 35 minutes more. After that I let it sit for 15 minutes before slicing it into thin rounds.

During that time, I roasted the asparagus at 400 degrees while making a glaze of butter, balsamic, maple syrup, and soy sauce.

The roast was medium on the ends, medium-rare in the middle (very little red), and delicious both right then and there with the salad and glazed asparagus and for lunch, cold, over salad dressed with glaze.

Not to mention, I cooked it on foil, so clean up was as easy as making it.