In dire need of a cooked meal that reminds you of home? Trying to find new ways to spend time with your flatmates? Or maybe you just want to show off the cooking skills you have developed since moving out to your family groupchat. Either way, no matter the reason, here is the guide to cooking the ultimate Sunday roast for your flat.
Improving your cooking skills
Whether you’re a Gordon Ramsay in the kitchen or brewing up a pot-noodle is as far as your culinary skills reach, cooking your first ever Sunday roast can be quite the ordeal, especially if you live in a chaotic student house. But don’t stress (mainly because students will eat anything, so it’s actually not a big deal if it doesn’t turn out to be Michelin star worthy.)
Where to begin
First thing’s first, try and count how many people you are cooking for. Rounding up all of your flatmates and getting them to confirm attendance can be quite the task in itself, but will save you some effort in the longrun if you find out that only one person likes vegetables or not all ten people can make it to the meal.
It’s all in the prep
Next, it’s time to get the ingredients. If you’re cooking for the entire flat, it’s unfair for the financial burden of this to rest solely on you, so try to find a way to split the cost but make sure it’s stated from the beginning.
Cooking for a lot of people can often make you feel like you don’t have enough food for everyone, but it all goes further than you think. So the trick is not to buy too many ingredients and to plan out what you are making so you can ensure that everything is bought beforehand (there’s nothing more stressful or frustrating than running out of an essential ingredient just as you’re about to plate up!)
If you’re wondering how much veg is needed per person, VegPower says that 80g of vegetables per day is the recommended amount. Take a look here to see how it’s portioned.
Peeling and chopping
If you’re cooking meat, that is usually the first item to put in the oven. Most packets say how long to cook it for, but as a general rule, a chicken needs approximately 45-50 minutes per kilogram, plus an additional 15-20 minutes at the end, at a temperature around 180°C.
When that’s in the oven you can start with preparing all the veg. Potatoes usually take the longest but remember that you will need enough time to make gravy at the end too.
Timings
To boil potatoes: 20 minutes
To cook cauliflower: 5-7 minutes
Carrots: 4-7 minutes
Broccoli: 3-5 minutes
Cabbage: 3-5 minutes
Peas: 2-4 minutes
These are just rough timings and depend on how high the heat is as well as the quantity, but if you keep an eye on them whilst cooking you can usually tell when vegetables are done by giving them a poke to see how tender they are.
What to do with leftovers
A Sunday Roast sit-down meal is a great way to spend time with your flatmates, especially around the Christmas holidays before everyone goes home.
If you overestimated how hungry you would be, you can either refrigerate a portion of Sunday lunch or freeze it. Some people also like it in a fry-up the next day. Either way it can save you some cooking time for the following week!
