New ideas for your Sunday roast

A guide to reinvigorating this winter weekend classic.

A Sunday roast in winter is an institution, steeped in history and drizzled with some of your Mum’s best gravy. But it’s 2018 now, and time to shake things up. We look at a few things you can do in the kitchen to breathe new life into this homely winter go-to.

Ditch beef and harness the power of roast lamb

Roast beef is the traditional option for meat for a Sunday roast, which is exactly why you need to give lamb a whirl. Lamb is naturally hearty and tender, and different cuts can be cooked and used in a variety of ways. The key to unlocking the power of lamb is to pair it with herbs like rosemary, mint, oregano and thyme, all of which you can grow quite easily yourself.

If you’re still stuck for ideas on how to bring lamb to life in your modern Sunday roast masterpiece, we highly recommend you try our recipe for spicy slow roasted lamb shoulder.

Also, don’t forget to check out our guides on how to tell if your lamb is cooked without cutting it, how to carve your roast lamb, and lastly why you should be resting your lamb before serving.

As you’re serving a new kind of meat, why not also ditch the gravy and look at introducing a tasty lamb marinade instead.

Do something new (and exciting) with pumpkin

Pumpkin is the quintessential Australian winter food, super versatile and very easy to grow yourself in your own backyard. You can also use pumpkin to revolutionise your roast by pairing it with surprising flavours, such as coconut, sage, sweet apple or Moroccan spice.

Make a marvellously different type of mash

One way to really modernise your Sunday roast is to swap your roast potatoes, for mashed ones. There are so many ways to cook mashed potatoes, each using different types of potatoes. Our favourite mash varieties for winter are Colcannon, Paris, Wasabi, Pancetta and Cheesy.

Douse your roast vegetables with homemade dukkah

Nuts are often an overlooked addition to savoury winter dishes. To add something truly special and unique to your roast vegetables, try sprinkling some of our homemade almond and hazelnut dukkah over the top of them. Guests at your table will be impressed by your ingenuity at pairing these things together and will love the surprising crunch.

Serve your Sunday roast with homemade bread

Nothing screams home-cooked, warming and soul-soothing like freshly baked bread. Our nutty whole grain bread recipe takes only 10 minutes to prepare, under an hour to bake, and the added currants make it the ideal accompaniment for your roast lamb.

Bake the perfect, wholesome apple pie for dessert

Australian winters and granny smiths go together like apple pie and ice-cream, which is why our recipe for the ultimate apple pie will take your roast game to the next level. As lamb and apple are notoriously complementary to one-another, this dessert will not only warm the hearts of those at your dinner table, it will feel like a cleverly considered extension of the main meal.

Don’t forget to watch our guide on the simplest way to peel an apple, before starting to prepare this dish.