Make the most of your roast
Here are two of my all-time favourite sides to accompany a comforting winter roast beef or lamb, honey-roasted pumpkin and classic creamed spinach.
The cooking time for the pumpkin will depend on how thickly the wedges are sliced. If you aim for the thick end at about 2cm, the timing will be spot on. The roast pumpkin dish is almost a feast in itself – first roasted with olive oil, honey, and salt and pepper until almost cooked through, then finished off with salty prosciutto and melted blue cheese, aromatic sage and crunchy walnuts.
It would be easy to change up the flavour profiles to suit those who aren’t fans of blue cheese, for example swap it for feta, with rosemary and pine nuts, and add good quality black olives at the end, or try adding cumin seeds and feta, with walnuts and a garnish of fresh coriander, or perhaps amp up the heat with a sprinkling of chilli flakes.
When you first put the spinach in the pot it will seem enough to feed an army, but it wilts so significantly it will actually only serve four – but what a wonderful way to eat your greens! It has a wonderful nurturing vibe with a touch of cream, and the crucial freshly grated nutmeg to give it a hint of warm spice.
Both lots of vegetables take only moments to prepare but will take your next roast dinner to a new level of deliciousness.
Honey roast pumpkin with prosciutto, blue cheese and walnuts Serves 4-6 Preparation: 15 minutes Cooking: 20-25 minutes
❚ 800g pumpkin, cut into wedges
❚ 1 tablespoon olive oil
❚ 2 teaspoons runny honey
❚ Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
❚ 80g prosciutto
❚ 1 ⁄ 2 cup shelled walnuts
❚ 30g blue cheese
❚ 1⁄4 cup fresh sage leaves
Heat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius, and place the pumpkin in a single layer on an oven tray.
Drizzle with the olive oil and runny honey, and season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Bake for 15 minutes, then remove from the oven and turn the pumpkin slices over. Rumple up pieces of prosciutto and poke between the pumpkin wedges. Sprinkle over the walnuts and blue cheese and poke the sage leaves in and around the pumpkin.
Bake for a further 5-10 minutes until the pumpkin is cooked through, the prosciutto crispy, the walnuts toasted, and the cheese melted. If using bigger pumpkin wedges, cook until almost soft before adding remaining ingredients for the final 5-10 minutes.
Classic creamed spinach Serves 4 Preparation: 5 minutes Cooking: 9 minutes
❚ 2 tablespoons butter
❚ 2 cloves garlic, crushed
❚ 240g washed baby spinach leaves
❚ 2 tablespoons cream
❚ 1⁄4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
❚ Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Melt the butter in a large, heavy bottomed pot. Add the garlic and cook over a gentle heat for two minutes.
Add the spinach leaves, cover, and cook for 3-4 minutes until wilted.
Add the cream, nutmeg, and sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, and cook for a further three minutes, uncovered, until the spinach is cooked and the cream slightly reduced. Serve immediately.