One of life’s essential skills that you need is to be able to cook a roast! Whether you are just moving out of home, going to university or just love to cook, this blog should be helpful to you! It was only recently that I learnt this skill as getting the timings right is the tricky part! When you move into your own place, it is nice to cook a roast on sundays to have a chill and feel homey. When me and my boyfriend cook a roast, we use the leftover meat for sandwiches, curries or salads the week after. It is such a good value meal!
Recipe (serves 2 with leftover meat)
1 large chicken or meat of your choice
2 baking potatoes
2 carrots
1 red onion
2 parsnips
Gravy (I use a Knorr gravy pot)
Method
- First preheat your oven and set it to 160°C. Look at the instructions on the meat, most normally say how long to cook and rest it for. If not Google it, as each meat differs. I like to draft out a timetable. Remember to include the resting and carving time! You can spread butter over the meat, and add herbs and seasoning. Sometimes I like to add lemon to the outside or inside of the meat such as chicken. Put the meat in the oven when the oven has got up to temperature.
- Peel and slice the potatoes and carrots. For the potatoes you want about ¼ wedges and for the carrots large chunks (about 5cm long). Make sure you leave them big enough as they will shrink whilst cooking!
- Pop the carrots and potatoes in a pyrex dish and boil in the microwave with some water for 10 minutes.
- Before you put the vegetables in to cook, heat some oil on a baking tray in the oven, 5 minutes earlier. When the time is 1 hour 20 before the serving time, place the potatoes and carrots in the oven on the oiled baking tray. Be careful as the oil is hot!! Then season the vegetables with salt, pepper and some thyme (or any other herbs you fancy).
- Peel and cut the parsnips into large chunks (about 5cm long).
- Use the same pyrex dish as before to boil the parsnips in the microwave for 10 minutes.
- When it is 40 minutes before the serving time, add the parsnips to the carrots and potatoes. Give this all a good shake and mix. Add a little more salt, pepper and herbs.
- About 20 minutes before serving time, give the vegetables another turn.
- Take the meat out 15 minutes before serving and carve after 10 minutes rest. Whist the meat is resting, make the gravy from the gravy pot and juices of the meat. Sieve if necessary and add flour to thicken if you like a thicker gravy.
- Carve the meat 5 minutes before serving.
- Serve the vegetables alongside the meat, with lashings of gravy.
I hope you find this useful! I definitely think making a roast is such a great thing to do. You can always just do the roast vegetables if you are vegetarian to serve with some nut roast! Enjoy!
