I tried this experiment yesterday to see what it would be like, and if it would work for our budget.
I thought of it because when I was a child, 10 or 11 maybe, we had our usual gargantuan Sunday lunch – piles of roasties, mountains of Yorkshires, millions of veggies, lakes of gravy etc etc. Afterwards as Mum was ferrying dishes out to the kitchen whilst we all sat round with Pa Bear bellies, there was a volley of cursing and shouting from the kitchen.
Mum had found the Sunday joint. Still sitting on the side!
Would you miss the meat in a Sunday Roast?
NO-ONE had noticed, neither parent, none of us kids, not one of our visiting friends. So I wondered if it would work here. Tell you what, it was lovely. Crunchy potatoes, creamy cauli, buttery carrot and swede. And Yorkshires. Well, they didn’t go quite to plan. Yorkshires are one of Mike’s most favourite things. I make them in a 12 hole bun tin and I might have 1 or 2, and there might be 1 or 2 leftover, maybe. I can’t tell you how many hundreds of times I have made them in the millions of years we have been together. And I stuffed them up! Waah! For some reason unknown to me, I used self raising flour, even tho I have known since I was a wee thing that using self raising flour makes flat Yorkshires, you have to use plain flour if you want a risen pudding.
This is what they should look like
The picture at the top shows runner beans which I used because we still have some, but we didn’t need them, nor the gravy, so I have left those out of the recipe. Use what you have and like of course. Although I would recommend something in the mustardy sauce to give a bit of wetness to the meal, unless of course you have some gravy.
We really liked this and were quite happy without the meat. If you try it, I’d love to know what you thought of it.
Any leftover Yorkshires (doesn’t happen in this house) reheat very well, or can be frozen.
Ingredients
Cauliflower Cheese
- ¼ cauliflower including the leaves
- 200 ml semi skim milk
- 1 tsp grainy mustard
- pinch salt
Roasties
- 500 g white potatoes
- 1 tblsp oil
- salt
Carrot & Swede Mash
- 100 g carrots grated
- 100 g swede
- 1 tblsp butter buttery spread etc
Yorkshire Puddings
- 300 ml milk
- 1 egg
- 100 g flour
Instructions
Roasties
- First of all, get the roasties on. Peel the potatoes and cut them into suitable sizes.
- Pre-boil them for 10 minutes until almost cooked, then drain and give them a good shake in the pan to rough them up.
- Put the potatoes on an oven tray with low sides, drizzle about half a tsp of oil on each one and sprinkle over a little salt.
- Put in the oven at 210° and set the timer for 35 minutes. You can use beef fat if you have any leftover from frying mince or roasting a joint. Or of course, goose fat, if you are lucky enough to have any, gives a fantastic flavour.
- While the potatoes are cooking, start the yorkshires.
Yorkshire Puddings
- Put all the ingredients into a jug and whisk until well combined, set aside.
- In a 12 hole bun tin, put about half a tsp of oil in each hole. Or 10 anyway, as this mix will make 10 puddings. If you don’t have a bun tin, you can still do the pudding using one dish.
Cauliflower Cheese
- Now do the cauliflower. Cut the part you are using into small pieces, include the stems and outer leaves and cook until soft in a microwave dish or saucepan.
- To make the sauce, put a tbslp of oil in a saucepan and add a heaped tbslp of flour and sizzle for a bit. Turn the heat to medium
- Measure out 300ml of milk and add a little, stir well until incorporated and repeat until all the milk is used up. Add in a tsp of grainy mustard and some salt and pepper if you like. Alternatively, put everything into a (preferably non-stick) saucepan, and whisk gently until thickened
- Considering that this has no cheese in it, it is amazingly creamy. Mix the cauliflower and sauce together and put in an ovenproof dish and set aside.
Put Yorkshires in the oven
- When the 35 minute timer goes off, put the Yorkshire pudding tins in the oven and wait ten minutes. Take out the tin, which should be smoking hot and carefully pour in some pudding mix into each of 10 holes. Put it back in the oven immediately and set the timer for 10 minutes.
- The pudding mix needs to sizzle as it hits the hot fat and start cooking immediately, like in the picture.
- When the timer goes off this time (after 10 minutes), put the cauliflower in the bottom of the oven and start the carrot and swede cooking.
Carrot & Swede Mash
- Grate the carrot and swede and put in a saucepan with a little water.
- Set the timer for another 10 minutes.
- When the carrot and swede mixture is nice and soft, drain it and give it
a little mash. Add a knob of butter or buttery type thing if you have
any, salt and pepper if you like. Put the lid back on.
Serve
- When the timer goes off, all is ready. Without opening the oven door if at all possible, check that the Yorkshire puddings are risen and golden. If not, leave for 3 or 4 more minutes
- Get everything out of the oven, put the plates in the oven to warm for a moment, and dish it all up.
Equipment Needed
Notes
Got a great recipe? How about submitting it to appear on Thrifty Lesley!
Nutrition
Other Things You Might Like for a Sunday Lunch
I think I could give Mike Yorkshire puds, roasties and some kind of fruit crumble every day and he’d be happy as Larry.
The sticking puds might be not enough oil (needs to be half a tsp or even a whole tsp per hole) or tin not hot enough (needs to be smoking hot). But if you’ve found a way you like, stick with that I say.
I’ve never been successful making yorkshires like this. I’m not sure why. Watching Delia on tv one day a long time ago, she used a swiss roll tin. I’ve made them in this type of tin ever since and rarely had a flop. On the odd occasion that I’ve tried the bun tin again, they stick and fail to rise properly. But serving yorkshire puds always elevates a meal from everyday to special for us. Yum!
Cor, envious of the pinenuts, what a bargain.
Had some broccoli pesto from the freezer for breakfast this morning on a value muffin, and a little dish of slow cooked plums from the garden. Lovely.
The roasted veg soup sounds delicious. I’m gradually getting back into the soup mode, we have it most days for lunch when it’s cold.
This looks lovely and I think it is what we will be eating this weekend.
This is what I did this week:
despite JO’s ill-advised comments (I’d love to challenge him to visit some areas close to us – real poverty and food deserts- and ask him to demonstrate how his ’10 mangetout from the market’ philosophy would work there) I took on board his idea of a ‘Mothership’.
When I made a crumble I put in the oven a tray of veg. to roast – garlic, red onion, carrot, sweet potato, butternut squash and beetroot and I also made a panful of a ratatouille-type mix of veg and based our meals for this week on these and a packet of sausages. It was convenient and saved on fuel. We have just had, for lunch, a soup made from stock, roasted veg and chick peas. It took as long to make as a cupasoup and was delicious.
Next week’s Mothership will be couscous, which will help me to use some of my AF couscous mountain, a lovely rich tomato and lentil sauce and broccoli pesto which I am longing to try. I was lucky enough to bag 1kg of pinenuts (still in date) from AF for £3.99 before they sold out.