To not enjoy a 'Sunday Roast'?

[ManicUnicorn]

Is it just me who doesn't get the love for it? It's probably the most boring and bland meal there is. A massive lump of tasteless meat and boiled vegetables, smothered in gravy.

My DF insists he has to have one every single Sunday, but quite honestly I'd rather have a curry, or pizza, or slag Bol, or anything other than a roast fucking dinner.

Why are we so obsessed with having a roast dinner on Sunday in this country?

I also LOVE caulliflower cheese as a side dish, never had it with a roast though.

Oh my, have you got a treat in store!

I also LOVE caulliflower cheese as a side dish, never had it with a roast though.

Oh my, have you got a treat in store!

No cauliflower cheese! It ruins it!

Cauliflower cheese definitely, especially but not limited to beef roast dinner.

I might do creamy cheesy leeks with my pork later though.

Cauliflower cheese is perfectly nice as children's supper, (particularly made with gruyere) wouldn't want it with roast though.

Yanbu, don't understand the love for roast dinners at all

Cauliflower cheese is delicious but serving it with a roast is an abomination, they do not go at all.

Almost anything cooked by my (deeply missed) MIL could have answered your description.

Almost nothing cooked by my DF does.

It's about the cook, not the meal.

Im not the biggest fan, they take too long to make and unlike my family im meat fussy and will only have chicken. They also like honey roasted stuff and i loathe honey, they dont care for mash when its my favourite, and we have different veg preferences. I also dont like gravy or cooking sauces on meat. Its amazing having it once a year for christmas, but you wont find me at a carvery or the likes.

Nacho that roast is a thing of beauty

Wish I'd taken a picture of mine now but it would've been embarrassing the amount of roast potatoes I had on my plate

I was having a roast, but I forgot to take the chicken out of the freezer yesterday So now I'm so upset I'm on strike and we'll probably have egg and chips.

Capt Wentworth.

Egg and chips is food of the gods. So seldom I think of it TBH!

Off to find eggs and chips somewhere now.

My mother is a brilliant cook, but Sunday roasts were never her forte so it was my least favourite meal of the week growing up.

Nowadays I quite like the odd roast dinner, but rarely cook one myself.

YABSVU

A Sunday Roast would be my Last Supper, if I was ever on death row.

I quite like cauliflower cheese as a side, but only with beef. And it has to be a good one, like the kind my DP makes.

I've just been to Tesco for a chicken, as after this thread nothing but a roast would do for dinner today! Was going to go all out but just realised I haven't got anything for stuffing. [frown] It will still be yummy though!

This thread has made my mouth water. Stuff Ive never associated with roast dinners like mashed potatoes, which in our family was only ever served with sausages. My DM isn't a great cook, which she admits to.

I think I will make myself my own roast dinner one day soon and try some of the suggestions on here. Wouldn't have a clue how to make my own gravy though?

There are lots of other yummy things you can make as sides for a roast and if you vary the mix of dishes it really never gets boring or bland. Sometimes we have mash and roasties, for example (not masses of each, it's not always about gluttony of us, it's just to make a nice change), or we might have roast carrots and parsnips one time but another time we'll have a carrot and swede mash, or crush. Sometimes we make it a little more Mediterranean (in its influence - I'm not claiming any authenticity here) in that we'll have crushed new potatoes with garlic and herbs, rather than traditional roasties. If you've never tried roasting a celeriac that's definitely worth it too, especially as a side to beef. Roasted butternut squash is really lovely with lamb.

I love a roast dinner but it has to be cooked properly none of that Aunt Bessie's rubbish.
I cook one every Sunday in the Autumn/winter in part because I can guarantee DD will eat it with no fuss.

Oh and on gravy, just follow a good simple recipe. Lots of people swear by Jamie Oliver's make ahead gravy but that's a little more labour intensive. I've never tried it so can't speak for it. I'm actually quite lazy and don't make a gravy from scratch every time - I'll quite happily confess to quite often just using a base of bog standard bisto chicken gravy, which I'm sure will make the purists on this thread throw their hands up in horror. But I make a bit of effort with the sides and I feel like a cheat with the gravy doesn't really matter all that much. I'll make up a thin-ish gravy with the powder or granules (so that you don't get too much 'pre-made' flavour) and then all the delicious cooking juices go in as well, so it ends up quite lovely and flavourful. If I'm making one with more of the med influences I often don't make a gravy at all and will just use the cooking juices instead.

manic
home made gravy is fun : accept the lumps as character ....
pan that the meat has been roasted in (with spuds so still has fat)
lift the meat out
put pan on hob over low heat
stir a bit of flour into the juices to make like a roux
add the water from the veggies in bits till you have gravy
stirring constantly
ignore lumps, they taste good
proper gravy on veg is LUSH

All our family love a roast

See I have an irrational hatred of the description 'roast' without specifying which meat. If it was the pet cat being roasted you'd probably turn your nose up at it.

I turned vegetarian in the mid 80s in a family of meat eaters (I was about six at the time) my mother insisted on cooking a Sunday dinner whatever the weather, the tarmac could be melting on the roads, but she'd serve up this truly dreadful tough as old shoe leather joint of beef, vegetables boiled to the point of mush (I think this is a generational thing to overboil vegetables) and mash potatoes you could choke on the lumps in.

Instead of the beef, I got a lump of cheddar cheese and was spared the horror of her gravy. My sister, her jaw worn out from chewing the beef would cast envious glances at the cheese.

All of us would spend our time, pushing this mess around the plate and trying to eat as little as possible, before the inevitable row over 'The amount of time I've spent slaving in that kitchen' and to 'think about the starving children in Africa'

I used to dream of being an adult when I could abandon this unhappy and stilted ritual. I have never eaten one since the day I left my parents' house aged 18, despite there being some quite appealing options for vegetarians.

Cauliflower cheese is best of all with lamb. Just indescribably delicious (especially if you roast the cauliflower rather than boil it).

A proper roast is heaven with lots of side dishes... and home-made blackberry jelly of course.

ManicUnicorn: " DM is a terrible cook, and I wonder if Ive been scared for life by her awful Sunday dinners of rubbery chicken, leathery beef and mushy over cooked veg?"
This!
My mother's attitude to cooking was cook it until it's dead and then leave it another hour just in case. Roast beef was served stone cold, having been over cooked hours earlier, cut into thick slabs. She couldn't carve either. So I'm with you on not being overly enamoured with the Sunday roast.

Love a good Sunday Roast, had a slight deviation today because of the weather - but I made Yorkshires so it counts.

Spatchcock roasted chicken marinated in chillies and BBQ sauce, with chipped roast potatoes cooked in butter & lemon juice. With the obligatory roasted whole carrots and seriously enormous home made Yorkshires. If I say so myself, it was amazing.