Tips for the Ultimate Roast Dinner
With roast dinner season upon us, we’ve asked our Culinary Development Chef, Ben, to give us his best tips for the ultimate roast dinner.
Ben is confident these tips will blow your friends and family away when you serve up the best roast dinner of your life.
TIP 1: Choose the Right Centrepiece
Luckily for you, Meatless Farm is here to save the day. We’ve produced the ultimate plant-based centrepiece, our Chickenless Roast.
Perfectly succulent, deliciously flavourful, and cooked in just 35 minutes in the oven (or 18 minutes at 200C in the airfryer). Find out more about our Chickenless Roast, and get your hands on it in Tesco stores nationwide using our store locator.
Not only is this the perfect centrepiece for the ultimate roast dinner, it’s also perfect for vegan Christmas recipes. Enjoy!
TIP 2: God Tier Roasties, without the Goose!
What roast dinner is complete without potatoes? Crispy on the outside, and fluffy on the inside, these potatoes are parboiled before they’re finished off to give them that extra crunch. Instead of using goose or duck fat to cook them, swap this out for vegetable or rapeseed oil to make them suitable for everyone.
For the ultimate roasties, use Maris Piper potatoes and boil them in salted water until they’re so soft you’re scared they’ll turn to mash.
Carefully remove them from the water and leave to cool before roasting in rapeseed oil.
Top Tip: put 4 tablespoons of oil in the pan and heat this in the oven until nearly smoking before carefully placing the potatoes into the hot oil.
When the potatoes are 90% of the way to being beautifully crisp, chuck in a couple of cloves of smashed garlic and some rosemary for the final 5 minutes of cooking.
Season with sea salt and serve while hot.
TIP 3: The Ultimate Carrots
For the most delicious and buttery carrots, peel the carrots and cut into equal sized chunks. Place into a heavy bottomed saucepan with a knob of vegan butter and a pinch of sea salt.
Cover the pan tightly with foil and a lid and place the pan over the lowest heat possible. Cook for around 40 mins, shaking the pan gently every now and then. The carrots will steam themselves in their own juices. You’ll be left with the most buttery-soft carrots you’ve ever eaten.
TIP 4: Zing up the Veg
A few ways to make your greens more exciting: Firstly don’t overcook them. We’ve all had Gran’s 5 hour boiled cabbage…
To keep them nice and green, have a pan of salted water on a steady boil. Next, tip in your broccoli, kale and cabbage or whichever veg you fancy, and cook for around three minutes until they’re still gorgeous and green and with plenty of bite. Strain and dress with a giant knob of butter OR if you’re feeling fancy, try dressing with a quick salsa verde.
Ultimate Green Veg Salsa Verde Recipe
Ingredients:
1 clove garlic
Pinch of sea salt
Splash of red wine vinegar
Large handful of flatleaf parsley
a pinch of chilli flakes
a big glug of oil
1 tsp capers
Method:
Whizz all the ingredients in a blender. Or chop the capers, garlic, parsley with a knife and mix through with the other ingredients. Stir the sauce to combine everything and then pour over the green sauce before tossing everything together.
TIP 5: Timing is Everything
To prevent any panic in the kitchen, one of my best tips is to get ahead and be prepared. Pre-cooking is key to this, and it means that serving is made easier.
Your greens should be the last thing you do, so they stay green. However, Yorkshire puddings, roasties, carrots, gravy etc. can all be pre-prepared and cooked, ready to heat through on the stove or in the oven.
Your family and friends will think you have military grade organisational skills and bow down to your roast prowess.
