I love kibbeh.  If you've never had it, it's a Middle Eastern dish of spiced ground meat  with bulghur wheat.  Much like hummus and falafel, how it's spiced is regional.  In some areas it's even served raw.   By the way, if you are local, the best kibbeh that I've found in the area is at Phoenicians, which I cannot recommend highly enough.  (They are closed on Monday's even though the website says "open daily") I also happen to love pot roast.   Not only is it cheap but it's easy.  But I wanted something a smidge different than the every day Yankee pot roast. So, I combined my love of Middle Eastern Spices with the traditional pot roast recipe to come up with something mildly spiced but very flavorful. I've also substituted white potatoes for sweet potatoes for a little different flavor (and to be more South Beach Diet friendly- sweet potatoes are phase 2 only and are considered a "starch" because of the amount of natural sugar in them) This is done in the crock pot. I usually just load it up and move on.. But, you can always sear your pot roast first to add that bit of flavor that come from browning your meat.

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Kibbeh Inspired Pot Roast

Ingredients

• 3-4 pound pot roast.
• 1 medium onion
• 3-4 medium sweet potatoes
• 1 cup beef stock/broth
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flake (can bump up to 1/2 if you like a bit more heat)

Directions

1. Trim the fat from your pot roast. This can be difficult since it's usually marbled throughout.  I just get the hard fat off the edges.  If desired, sear all sides in a hot pan.  Put the pot roast in the bottom of your slow cooker.
2. Slice the onion and spread over the top of the roast
3. Peel the sweet potatoes and place them whole on top of the onions.
4. Stir the cinnamon, allspice and red pepper flake into the beef broth and pour over everything in the slow cooker.
5. Cook on high for about 5 hours.  I don't know how long on low (sorry.. I'm always shoving this in the crock pot around 11AM on Sunday mornings).  Turn the sweet potatoes over about 1/2 way through.

Once everything is cooked through, remove sweet potatoes and cut up for serving.  Remove the pot roast and cut up in chunks, I usually remove as much fat as I can at this point. You can take some of the broth from the crock pot and thicken it with cornstarch for a gravy or you can just pour a smidge over your plate as is.   I usually nuke some broccoli for a side dish.