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.

We only really have roasts at Christmas and Easter and occasional Sunday's. It's just me and my dd so seems a lot of effort for just two.

When kids were young it was the least faffy 'proper dinner' - chicken gets bunged in the oven. Potatoes (semi-peeled) boiled and mashed, or even sometimes ready prepped garlic bread. Carrots peeled and cooked. Frozen peas unfrozen. Gravy granules cooked with the veg water.

It can be as fussy or plain as you want it.

We have it every Sunday, with varying degrees of faffiness. Depends what the weekly veg box brings, and how much energy I have.

We do as it’s an easy meal and everyone likes it. Chicken yesterday. Put chicken in oven - no effort and leftovers for risotto. Always do roast spuds in airfryer with spray oil and jdseasonings perfect roast potatoes seasoning. Had 3 sorts of veg yesterday in steamer. Different meat each week.

Once every 3 or 4 weeks. I’d happily do it more often, ends up pretty economical on time and money when I can spread the meat out over 3 days, everyone loves it...BUT, it means I spend more of Sunday not with the kids than I’d like.

Me, Queen of the roasts, also not French, just like the roast dinner isn't. wink

Yes , I'm aware that the French are not big on roasts but they have no hesitation in serving one veg with their meat, which was my point. They will happily serve a streak on the bone with just a few new potatoes and salt for example. Admittedly, they may have a salad afterwards. And/or a vegetable starter. I was trying to say the roast doesn't have to be a labour of love. You can serve a shoulder of lamb with a dish of ratatouille made the day before. Or a pile of haricot beans with garlic. I've been served a rotisserie chicken in France with just a dish of peas and braised lettuce or a green salad. The main point is that serving veg for different courses is less hassle than all at once, especially if you want each individual vegetable to be cooked well.

I can’t imagine having a meal I had to make and eat on a given day of the week, every week. We eat what we fancy when we fancy, every now and again I do a roast, probably every three weeks or so, but it’s rarely on a Sunday and more we have it in so we cook it as we fancy it, I don’t really see it as different to any other dinner really.

We do a roast nearly every Sunday but mix it up sometimes. E.g. Mediterranean chicken with roasted vegetables and Mediterranean potato salad. We love cauliflower mash as well, it sits much easier on the stomach than potato and tastier in my opinion. But nothing beats a traditional roast dinner.

@Allington

When kids were young it was the least faffy 'proper dinner' - chicken gets bunged in the oven. Potatoes (semi-peeled) boiled and mashed, or even sometimes ready prepped garlic bread. Carrots peeled and cooked. Frozen peas unfrozen. Gravy granules cooked with the veg water.

It can be as fussy or plain as you want it.

We have it every Sunday, with varying degrees of faffiness. Depends what the weekly veg box brings, and how much energy I have.

I'm sorry what? You have garlic bread on your roast?!

We have one every Sunday. In normal times we stick it in the oven, go to church, and when we get back put on the veg and make gravy.

I prefer them mid week or on Friday night to be honest. Simple version though. bung a chicken in, roast potatoes, one sometimes two veg, packet stuffing and bisto gravy. I love it and in a time in future when life is less busy I’d like to do more elaborate roasts.,

@ineedaholidaynow

Maybe some people aren’t very good at cooking roasts if they only have them once a year. You can make so many options with sides and what meat and how you flavour the meat, they are not the same meal each time

Maybe some people that cook them every weekend serve up unseasoned boiled to death grey rubbish

Who knows 🤷‍♂️

Roasts are easy but dull and although they don't require much actual work they do require time in that obviously its hours from starting cooking to eating, and not a case of preparing then putting in the oven and ignoring til its finished, like a gulasch... So it requires someone attending to the next stage regularly.

The end result is never anything special no matter who cooks it or how good they personally believe that they are at cooking roasts.

My mother was absolutely obsessed with having to have a Sunday roast at lunch time every week no matter what, and also with having to go to church that morning, and every single week without fail because incredibly stressed about the timings involved and furious that no matter how the family behaved we were never grateful enough (her main upset apparently stemming from it taking less time to eat than cook...) That's pretty much put me off roadts for ever - inescapably linked with dull, endless, somehow airless, tension loaded, early 1980s Sundays in my mind.

@Voomster953 why is it so fatty and calorific? Some meat and veg, you don't have to pile your plate up high

@Forwardroll

Me, Queen of the roasts, also not French, just like the roast dinner isn't. wink

Yes , I'm aware that the French are not big on roasts but they have no hesitation in serving one veg with their meat, which was my point. They will happily serve a streak on the bone with just a few new potatoes and salt for example. Admittedly, they may have a salad afterwards. And/or a vegetable starter. I was trying to say the roast doesn't have to be a labour of love. You can serve a shoulder of lamb with a dish of ratatouille made the day before. Or a pile of haricot beans with garlic. I've been served a rotisserie chicken in France with just a dish of peas and braised lettuce or a green salad. The main point is that serving veg for different courses is less hassle than all at once, especially if you want each individual vegetable to be cooked well.

But none of those meals are a roast dinner? I'm quite happy to provide a meal with one veg only. But not a roast dinner.

It's our favourite meal of the week so DH cooks one every Sunday, even in Summer.

A roast is just a dinner same as any other - I don't think its any more effort than say shep pie and veg or a lasagne or even bolognaise. But then I also have an oven thats always on (Everhot) and for me popping a chicken in for 1.5hrs is fine, can have roasties - parboil shove in oven and veg - roasted selection of veg and then gravy - done. Its just meat, pots and veg at the end of the day.

'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.'

Nonsensical and weirdly hysterical take. But thanks for your great male wisdom.

beef is even faster if you like it a bit pink

We have one most weekends apart from the summer. OH does the roast so it's no faff for me. We alternate between chicken and pork with the occasional lamb and have different veg to mix it up.

Maybe some people aren’t very good at cooking roasts if they only have them once a year.

Or maybe some people like to spend Sunday cooking other types of food.

Every weekend, yes. We do a big Sunday lunch maybe 1-2 times a month. It isn't always a roast. I agree they are a bit boring to cook and to eat. I don't quite understand the British affection for a Sunday roast. Maybe it's because I didn't really grow up with it and it doesn't have the same sort of comforting connotations for me. My mum couldn't cook to save her life - we actually used to go out for Chinese instead of doing a Christmas lunch. I don't recall her ever cooking a roast once. So no one ever cooked me nice comforting food growing up.

I do like making a nice stew (ox tail is lovely) and I have a few special roast meals we have regularly, and we do BBQs in the summer. But it isn't something I could do ever weekend.

We have one most weeks. It isn't a big faff to do as I love cooking.

But none of those meals are a roast dinner? I'm quite happy to provide a meal with one veg only. But not a roast dinner.

But that's a very slim definition. The main ingredient, the meat, is roasted in the oven. Therefore it's "a roast".

We have a roast most weekends because everyone eats every morsel so very stress free for me. Also easy to cook.
My kids would eat it more often if they could

@trappedsincesundaymorn

The last one I had was on Dec 25th...the next one will be Dec 25th...Once a year is plenty, can't stand roast dinners.

So if you hate them so much why have one on Christmas Day? Liberate yourself!