Roast dinner is one of my favourite meals- on a Sunday, on Christmas Day, and even from Monday- Saturday. It’s not a necessarily hard dish, but it requires lots of organisation on when everything should be cooked- so here’s a little blog post to help you along.

Meats– Usually the star of the show. I love to roast a whole chicken and the leftovers can be used for many other dishes (see chicken section of the blog for ideas). It is also much cheaper than getting the cut of meat. You can also use lamb, beef or turkey- for this usually I will buy the pre made joints and flavour it with lemon and garlic. If you are vegetarian, a tart of some sort is a great substitute or a nut roast.

A recipe for the BEST roast chicken:

Ingredients:

• 1 whole chicken
• 1 lemon
• 1 bulb of garlic (cloves crushed, skin on)
• Olive oil

Method:

1. Get your chicken and rub with olive oil, salt and pepper. Add the lemon slices and bulb of garlic. Put back in the fridge for an hour or so.
2. Switch on oven to 200 degrees C.
3. Place the chicken, breast upwards for 45 minutes.
4. Then turn the chicken around and place it breast down for another 45-60 minutes. Cover the chicken with its juices. So easy!

Veg– for the veg- of course roast potatoes are a must. Here is a recipe to the most amazing and delicious foolproof roast potatoes. Click here. Tips such as fluffing them up once boiled and using semolina as a coating are essential.

Other veg I do are carrots (you can boil or roast). If I roast, as seen below- I do it in red wine vinegar, olive oil, honey and thyme on around 180 degrees C for about 30 mins or until cooked through. Also I like to do greens such as broccoli, spring greens and cabbage. I simply steam these in the steamer and add a small amount of butter, salt and pepper. You can cook parsnips (in the same way as the carrots) and sprouts (by frying them with olive oil, nutmeg and bacon) for a Christmas touch.

Yorkshire puddings – I really like the taste of the Aunt Bessie’s shop brought ones, but sometimes I make my own. Here is a recipe for homemade Yorkies- click here.

Gravy– mmm my favourite. To make the best gravy- take the juices from the roast chicken or roast meat and add to some (chicken) stock (the pre made stock in the meats section of supermarkets is the best). Then I add bisto chicken gravy granules and whisk it until thick. If you are vegetarian, mix vegetarian onion bisto gravy with veggie stock.

Cauliflower cheese– this is totally unnecessary but I love it. Simply boil cauliflower until cooked. Then make a cheesy sauce- follow this mac and cheese sauce here. Essentially it is just whisking together butter and flour in a pan. Then adding milk slowly until all mixed together. Then adding lots of nutmeg and cheese, until the sauce is thick. Bake the cauliflower in this cheese sauce in the grill until bubbling.

Hope this helps! I love to eat it with a nice red wine- recently I have loved the Barefoot Malbec. Enjoy x