Sunday lunch - how common in 2025?

[Partridgewell]

Hi all,

Just pondering really and wondered how many of you have a roast dinner most Sundays? I had one almost every Sunday as a child. We have just had roast beef and yorkshire pudding, with raspberry and coconut sponge for pudding. I would say it's very unusual for us to miss one.

Is this still the case in your house? Did you have the same Sunday dinner as a child? Would absolutely love to hear from people whose parents or grandparents are not from the UK - what is your Sunday lunch tradition? Have you incorporated any traditionally British elements over the years?

We often had Sunday lunch when the DC were still at home, but it's a rarity now. We sometimes have friends round for one, or cook one when a DC or two come home.

This is making me feel extremely hungry!

I'm scottish but my mum and her family are all English. We always had it at dinner time not lunch.. Only time we had lunch was when we went down to visit family in Taunton.

We do a roast most Sundays during the winter. I've started batch roasting a whole bag of potatoes one day doing the week and freezing in portions to reheat in the air fryer on a Sunday. Can usually get three Sunday lunches for 4 of us out of that. Just seems to make a Sunday roast easier.

We never have pudding though.

We usually go for a really long walk afterwards to burn it off.

In the summer we bbq a whole chicken and have rice and salad.

Not at all! I'm just interested. You can believe what you want but I'm an English teacher, and this is slightly relieving the boredom of my Year 7 marking.

I've always been really interested in social history.

We haven't had a regular Sunday roast for about 25 years.

When the dc were still children, then we would often have a roast one of the week nights.

As a child we had Sunday roast every week, but there were far fewer other things to do on a Sunday. Now there are all sorts of activities on a Sunday, so we are very rarely all home together all day.

Over winter we have a Sunday dinner most Sundays, maybe one Sunday in the month we will have a fry up rather than a roast dinner. When Summer arrives and the days are hot we switch to a 80s salad

About 3 times a month. Then have 'Sunday sandwich' in the evenings which vary every week.

I've never cooked a roast dinner in my life. If I want one, I'll go to a carvery.

I do, a roast is one of my favourite meals and I can make a lot of easy weekday meals from leftovers so it suits me well!

Roast dinner. No not every Sunday

• but yes, always a nice family lunch after church.

DH and I love a Sunday lunch, the DC less so sadly. So we now go to the pub after Sunday morning activities. Those who need a Sunday roast can have one!

I used to try and do a Sunday lunch but it got a bit much.

Then when I was working 4 days a week and had fridays off I would do a Friday night roast almost weekly and that has stuck mostly. Sundays now I tend to do suppers- so soup or omelettes or crumpets and jam.

How did they do kidneys? I love kidneys but don't know how to make a decent meal out of them. Before DH became vegetarian he would cook them in sherry and cream and we would have with rice which I know are fairly traditional. But I can't seem to replicate them reliably.

When DH was alive, we often had 'family roast' on a night or afternoon that suited us. Although active in our church, roast dinner was not a part of that for us.
Regularly having 'family roast' started a few years ago when DH made a big dinner for Thanksgiving. The DCs loved it so much we started having a roast dinner when it suited us - usually about once a fortnight but sometimes more often.
DH loved a roast dinner so it's not something we can bear lately but we did go to the pub with his parents this afternoon and have a meal together. The GPs and I ordered the roast but the DCs had other things they wanted to try.
Years ago, a friend was in hospital for several months for cancer treatment which was successful and she is going strong now, 10 years later. After her time in hospital,having a Sunday roast every Sunday without fail was an important essential.

PS: marking is rubbish; I understand how any distraction helps.

Growing up 80s and 90s every week without fail. We only do one when we have guests over. It's a nice meal but the time taken vs time enjoyed ratio is insanely out of alignment.

Thanks. I'm really sorry for the loss of your DH. It's so hard when everything reminds you of what you've lost. I really do understand. Hopefully one day roasts will be a nice tribute to him, rather than a painful reminder.

I’m Vegetarian too so not an expert but my dh has just told me she fried them with lots of onions and garlic and they always had them with mash.

My mum used to cook them in with a vegetable stew

Really simple no frills recipes I think

Onions and garlic sound good. :) I think I might try this week! Thank you.

It’s great to hear people still eat all of the animal as I think it’s quite unusual these days 👏

We usually do during the winter months, mix it up from time to time and have beef stew dumplings and mash or a pie but for the most part we do have a Sunday dinner (at night time, not lunchtime). Tonight we had a tapas dinner, dh made a Spanish omelette at lunchtime and there was half left which inspired the dinner. Just finished it, bloody lovely.
As a kid we rarely had a traditional English Sunday dinner, mostly West Indian type dinners which were also lovely and felt decadent as mum didn’t really cook during the week (existed on ready meals and freezer food) but did often cook a Sunday dinner.

Pretty much every week! We don’t always have puddding though and it tends to be shop brought when we do.

Very rarely now since I got a smart meter and found out how much it was costing to cook it. Plus I got fed up with the time it took to prepare and the pots and pans used. I still do a cooked lunch but it’s just an ordinary day food wise.

Our Sunday dinner tradition is Just Eat pizza and burgers at about 6pm

I can't remember the last time I made a roast dinner, it's been years.
It's a chore and I don't enjoy making it. The cost is also pretty high these days, the energy alone to roast a chicken for as long as it needs, just doesn't seem worth the effort.

I enjoy eating a nice roast dinner mind you.. I remember the 80s and 90s when nan and mum would spend all morning peeling and chopping and prepping and cooking. Massive roast dinners at 2pm - then Heartbeat, top40 taping, Howard's way and Bullseye.. 🤣

Never ever. Just me and my partner at home, but once in a blue moon I even cook a roast. Can't be arsed for just the two of us, plus it makes the house absolutely stink and it's hard work/messy