To think cooking a roast every weekend is completely unnecessary

[ChristmasAlone]

Stems from a conversation I just had, I'm cooking a roast at the moment and mentioned it was the first one I've cooked this year. I love a roast, but just think cooking one every weekend (I know it's Monday) just feels completely unnecessary and takes away from its beauty if you're having every Sunday.

Roasts these days you can buy ready prepared - just shove in oven.

I meant the joint to be roasted....

I LOVE roast dinners. They are my favourite. Don’t love them enough to waste 3+ hours of a Sunday every week

@ineedaholidaynow

Funny how some people say it is an easy meal and others say it is a faff! For those that say it is a faff what makes it that and what sort of things do you cook instead that is easier?

We have a roast most Sundays in the colder months which then provides meat for the next day too which we either eat in a pie, curry or with jacket potatoes

When we do a roast it consists of

Meat, several different types of veg e.g parsnips/ carrots/ greens, roast potatoes, gravy, yorkshire puddings and cauliflower cheese.

The fact its such a faff is because everything needs cooking for different amounts of time and it involves a lot of pans.

I like cooking things in the slow cooker or lots of 1 pot meals as they mean a lot less washing up.

But op, lovely as your roast sounds, you don't have to serve six different vegetables with it. No wonder it's a faff if you do that.

I serve one veg, two max. We tend to have one a week in the winter and much less often in summer. Monday night if we are busy in Sunday's. It's really easy to cook as the main component looks after itself, especially if you already have some home made stock in the fridge or freezer.

I absolutely love a roast - it's my favourite dinner - but I find cooking them to be a chore. After faffing about with timings and dishing it up in the boiling hot kitchen, I don't even want to eat it anymore!

Electric multi layer steamer for the veg, or roasting them is much easier and more forgiving than lots of pans on the hob.

We have a roast most weeks.

Different meat, different veg and a pudding too.

We also then play round with the leftovers for Monday's tea and/or a later meal. Next weekend we'll have a slow roast of beef as we have run out of beef gravy.

Christmas doesn't get ruined as we choose a meat, or a cut, we wouldn't otherwise eat and I tend to go very overboard with the veg and other side dishes.

Summer just means we are more likely to have chicken or duck and comply different veg. Mediterranean roast veg complete with croutons, whole garlic cloves and feta or halloumi, for example. Leftovers of that go well with cous cous.

There are only the 2 of us, so we get to try out all sorts of different meals, if only to make sure there is no waste 😊

I adore a roast dinner and would happily eat one every week, but I can't be bothered making it every week. We have one maybe every other month, a bit more frequent in the winter. I don't think they are difficult to cook it's just all the veg prep. It makes lots of washing up too but that's not my job as I'm the chef

Roast is one of the few meals we all like so I do it most weeks. I think a simple roast without all the trimmings and only 2 veg, is quite easy to make and just takes a bit longer than our usual weekday dinners. I normally just do paxo stuffing with chicken or a ready made auntie Bessies Yorkshire with other meat, roast potatoes with carrots and peas or brocolli, bisto gravy with the meat juice stirred in . For special occasions I would do more trimmings, homemade stuffing and yorkshires and gravy, pigs in blankets, maybe breadsauce and more interesting vegetables and probably a nicer joint of meat. The simple roast is not that exciting but still nice if the meat and vegetables are well cooked.

We have jt quite often purely because its the only guaranteed way of getting my dc to eat vegetables. Personally once a month would do me.

@Forwardroll

But op, lovely as your roast sounds, you don't have to serve six different vegetables with it. No wonder it's a faff if you do that.

I serve one veg, two max. We tend to have one a week in the winter and much less often in summer. Monday night if we are busy in Sunday's. It's really easy to cook as the main component looks after itself, especially if you already have some home made stock in the fridge or freezer.

One veg?! That's not a roast!! It's got to have at least 3!

Another one for most weekends here. Plate will mostly be full of roast veggies, and Yorkshire pudding. The meat will do 2-3 meals.

Roast veg is easier than most dishes IMO. Just brush with oil and put in oven for 45 or 15 mins depending on veg. Good side for a lot of meals.

Some weeks are more fancy than others. And the only time we really push the boat out is Christmas Day.

I wouldn’t do another full roast mid week, but a slow cooked chicken or pulled pork wouldn’t be unusual.

No I love a roast its the highlight of the weekend.

As a matter of interest what do you eat on Sundays? I know a roast takes a long time to cook but its not a lot of preparation compared to some meals. If I am going out I just put the meat in the oven and set the timer, then prep veg when I get back.

One veg?! That's not a roast!! It's got to have at least 3!

Who said? The French seem to do it quite well.

everyone Sunday lunch at our house but not a faff. Just a roast chicken and then all our veg. goes in together potato, sweet potato, butternut squash, onion, garlic, carrot, beetroot, ( whatever weird stuff appears in weekly veg box!) and it's rotated in olive oil. We might just microwaves some peas at the end. Very easy meal.

I never cook one even in winter.

roasted even.

@ChristmasAlone

Stems from a conversation I just had, I'm cooking a roast at the moment and mentioned it was the first one I've cooked this year. I love a roast, but just think cooking one every weekend (I know it's Monday) just feels completely unnecessary and takes away from its beauty if you're having every Sunday.

Personally I haven't had a roast dinner for around 38 years because I detest meat and I detest boiled veg and I detest things that taste like meat (eg gravy or roast potatoes in some sort of meat fat).

I think that in the UK - a country famous for only having come up with one edible meal in it's entire history - fish and chips - people eat disgusting food and have a weird obsession with having the most disgusting of their disgusting food every single week, probably because that fits very nicely with man getting his proper reward from his woman for doing all the hard work all week.

That's my (male) take.

@SpeakingFranglais

Good grief, not every week. There’s so much washing up.

Is there?

As pps have said, it's one of those odd meals that seems to polarize: it is or it is not a pfaff. Maybe it's the same with the washing up. I don't think a roast is much hassle nor does it take much washing up.

Veg peeler, sharp knife
Roasting pan for meat
Roasting pan for spuds, other root veg and reheating Yorkshires
Pan for par boiling - gets a quick rinse for greens and then washed ready for custard.

What do you eat instead? Is it that the weekend, a Sunday, is no longer as special or different as it used to be when everything closed and a walk and tea was the best end/set up for a new week there was?

We grill every weekend (burgers, skirt steak, chicken, etc.) and only do roasts for holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas, or Easter.

This works out well for me as the men in our family do all of the grilling.

We have a roast every week. Its no hassle. I cant see why people think its a lot of effort.

Ive been brought up on a weekly roast

Not evety weekend because that would be a bore.

But it's not really a faff to make a roast, probably one of the easiest meals to make. Season meat, bung in oven, prep and season veg, bung in oven. Make a batter for yorkshire puddings, bung in oven.

I really don't get the fascination for something so basic.

And yes: you don’t need that many complicated sides for an “every week” roast. Tonight we are on:
Roast chicken
Roast potatoes, carrots and sweet potatoes (all peeled and cooked together)
Roast squash from veg box
Maybe stuffing balls
Maybe steamed cabbage
Gravy

Dh cooks ours. The smell of it cooking is yum.

And it’s DH’s turn this week as I took DC swimming for half the afternoon! Hence the maybes.