Preparing veg 36 hours ahead

[fatsatsuma]

I've got lots of people coming to lunch on Sunday and am planning a traditional roast with potatoes, carrots, parsnips etc.

We are going to be out all day and into the evening on Saturday, and out most of Sunday morning. Am thinking of peeling and chopping the root veg on Friday evening, covering them with water and storing in the fridge til Sunday morning when I will parboil and then bung in the oven before going out.

I've often done this the night before but never two nights before. Will it be OK? I just can't face getting up even earlier on Sunday to do it then, with three DCs 'helping'.

Fatsatsuma, I don't think I would do that. I have nothing really to go on, but I would think that they would lose a large part of their nutritional value if they have been sitting in water for that long.

What I would probably do is prepare them then put them in a clean polythene bag and squeeze most of the air out (so they don't start oxidising) and put them in the fridge.

Another option could be to freeze them on Friday night, and then take out of the freezer on Saturday night just before you go to bed.

This could all be wrong, but is just gut instinct.

I second silverwood.

I prepped my veg for Christmas dinner on the evening of the 23rd, put it into different bags with olive oil and herbs, and put in in the fridge.
I parboiled the spuds for roasting.
The only thing I left until christmas day was the potatoes for mashing.

Thanks both of you - really helpful posts.

Silverwood, I know what you mean about all the nutrients leaching out, but tbh, I'm not doing it on a regular basis so don't care too much about nutritional value on this one occasion. But if they lose their flavour too - well, that's another matter

I might go with notsochickchickchicken's suggestions and put the carrots etc in bags with oil and herbs, and parboil the potatoes ahead. But would they keep well having been parboiled? I have vague recollections of doing this ahead once before, and the potatoes going grey. What do you reckon?

If you parboiled the potatoes and then put them in oil, you would be part way towards the perfect roast potato (better in goose fat probably), and the oil would keep the oxygen at bay....wouldn't it?

Good thinking silverwood. BUT I always thought the secret to crunchy roast potatoes was to get the fat really hot before putting the potatoes in...