Why you should always have a roast on Sundays

I know it's a lot of money to spend in one go, but not to have a Sunday roast is, in my view, a false economy. You see, one roast will provide more than one meal and can be stretched to last most of the week. The nursery rhyme "Solomon Grundy" may be about "salamagundi", a medieval dish which started with a roast meal and continued in various forms during the week.

The roast which will go furthest is a chicken, especially if the meat is carved and served in slices rather than portions. It's still my favourite roast dinner with all the trimmings: roast taties, roast parsnips, carrots, cabbage, cauliflower or leeks and - of course - stuffing, which has to be parsley and thyme. And delicious gravy. These days I make it with gravy granules. More of that later! When you're preparing the cabbage or cauliflower, don't throw the stalks away. Save them for the soup.

The day after, strip the carcase of the remaining meat as much as you can, and put the bones into a large saucepan with an onion, a carrot, a couple of bayleaves and some peppercorns, and some thyme stalks if you have them. Cover with water, bring to the boil and simmer for 2 hours or so. Strain and you have chicken stock. You will never need a chicken stock cube again!

The meat from the carcase can make sandwiches, or you can combine it with a sauce or curry it. Making a casserole with extra veg such as mushrooms and sweetcorn is a great way to make this meat go further.

In the winter I make soup with the stock. If you make enough stock you can freeze what's left over. Anyway, you chop the stalks from the greens you had with the roast, an onion, carrot, celery, leeks - quantities depend on what you've got. Sweat them off in a large pan, in melted butter, ghee, oil, or just half an inch of water. When they've softened, add as much stock as you need to feed the number of people you have.

Now Mom's clever bit. Add a handful of either red lentils or pearl barley to the soup, or maybe even dried pasta or couscous. This will add body to the soup and make it feed more people. Cook the soup for about 45 minutes before adding what remains of the chicken meat. You can use a potato masher to blend the soup together, or a stick blender to produce a smoother soup. Or you can leave it chunky and call it "Farmhouse" if you like! Serve this soup with crusty bread.

Another handy tip is, if you know you won't be in a position to make stock from the carcase, freeze it until you have the time. You can add it to another carcase, or to a ham hock if you like. If I end up throwing a carcase in the bin without making stock from it I feel so guilty.