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A traditional roast dinner is one of those dishes everyone seems to cook a bit differently. It’s not surprising, then, that there are plenty of different ways to make a combi steam oven roast dinner. Once you crack the code, roasting meat in a steam oven saves time and makes your meat incredibly tender and juicy.
Today I’m going to tell you about my own combi steam roast lamb recipe, though if lamb isn’t your thing this will work with a beef or pork roast too.
This dish is slow roasted, giving you a result that’s not unlike a traditional pot roast (except, in my humble opinion, more delicious). It’s not the only way I roast meat in my combi steam, but it is the one I turn to most frequently because it’s simple and can be varied in so many ways. You’ll be able to take this method and make it your own with different vegetables, herbs or spices, and if you don’t like lamb you can do the same thing with a beef or pork roast.
If you’re wondering why I haven’t mentioned chicken, that’s because I cover steam oven roast chicken in a whole other post!
Types of meat to roast in a combi steam oven
My favourite meats to cook in terms of both flavour and affordability tend towards the cheaper secondary cuts. These cuts can be tough unless you cook them at low heat for a long time. Think pork or lamb shoulder or leg, pork belly, ribs, beef brisket, chuck and oyster blade. Basically, anything you’d normally use to casserole or pot roast.
A combi steam oven really comes into its own for slow roasting and there’s absolutely no need for you to own a slow cooker anymore. Hooray for extra cupboard space in the kitchen.
I enjoy prime cuts of meat like fillet and sirloin, and there is definitely a place for cooking these in a combi steam oven too. Lean, tender cuts like this are great for quick and impressive steam oven roasting, and they definitely up the luxury factor of a meal. If you’d like a couple of recipes for prime cut combi steam roasting, try this lamb fillet with pearl couscous or a pork fillet with roasted pears.
Types of vegetables to roast in a combi steam oven
As far as vegetables go for combi steam roasting, choose almost* anything you like. Our staples are sweet potato, carrots, zucchini and cauliflower or broccoli florets. I cut them into large chunky pieces, around 2 inches (5cm). Steam oven vegetables are wonderfully flavorsome and cook quite quickly without the need for lots of additional fat to help them brown.
*I say almost any vegetables because I do need to mention potatoes, or the lack thereof. I know, I know, a roast without potatoes can hardly be called a roast. I’m sorry. Here’s the thing, though: I do not particularly enjoy combi steam roasted potatoes. They may be perfectly textured on the inside, and in fact they are fine in general, but you will never get a true glassy, shattering crunch on the outside of your potatoes without finishing them off using dry heat. In case you’re wondering how I treat potatoes when I do bother: steam roughly diced, salted potatoes for about 20 minutes, shake the pan to crumble the edges and rough them up a bit, add LOTS of olive oil or duck fat (no point being half-hearted about the fat when you’re already all in on the carbs!) and finish them in a hot convection oven (200-220°C/392-428°F) until they’re golden and crunchy.
What to do with leftover slow roasted meat
I cook a roast dinner like this about once a fortnight, most often with lamb or pork shoulder (though today’s image is a half leg of lamb because the butcher had no shoulder). We usually get three meals out of it: a traditional roast with vegetables the first night, shredded meat ‘wraps’ or soft rolls with salad or leftover veggies the next day, and soup made from any leftover meat and the bones the day or two after that. I love the economy of cooking this way not just for price, but in the ratio of effort to reward and the way one meal can become so many others. It’s the way our mothers and grandmothers always cooked, yet seems to be a bit of a lost skill in the sub-40 age bracket.
If you’d like to try roasting in your steam oven and want a method that’s foolproof, delicious and adaptable, I encourage you to give this a go. It’s not fancy and it doesn’t look like much, but it’s always a winner in my home and I think it will be in yours, too.
Happy steam oven cooking, see you here again soon.
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Steam Oven Roast Dinner
Ingredients
- 3.3 lb bone-in roasting joint pork or lamb shoulder, leg or neck, beef chuck or brisket
- 2-3 tbs olive oil
- 1-2 tsp coarse salt to taste
- ½ tsp ground black pepper
- 2 sprigs rosemary or thyme
- 2 medium sweet potatoes about 600g/1.3lb, peeled and cut into 5cm/2” pieces
- 1 large zucchini about 600g/1.3lb, cut into 5cm/2” pieces
- 3 large carrots about 300g/10oz, peeled and quartered lengthways
- 3-4 cloves garlic unpeeled, squashed with the back of a knife
Instructions
- Put the meat in a roasting dish or tray and rub all over with half the oil, half the salt and the pepper. Tuck the herb sprigs around the edge of the meat.
- Put meat in the oven and set to 130°C/266°F on combination steam setting. If your oven has variable steam, use 80% (if not, don't worry! Just set the temperature and the combi steam setting and the oven will take care of the steam level for you).
- Cook the meat for 3-4 hours, until the meat is tender and easily pulls away from the bone. The time will depend on the cut of meat, but the only time I’ve needed the full 4 hours was for a very tough piece of beef chuck.
- When the meat is cooked, remove from the oven and set aside to rest, loosely covered with a piece of aluminium foil. Increase the oven heat to 210°C/410°F on combination steam setting. If your oven has variable steam, use 30%.
- Put the vegetables single layer into a tray (I use the 2/3 size stainless steel tray which came with my oven). Toss with remaining oil and salt. Cook for 20-25 minutes until tender and browned.
- While the vegetables cook, strain off the pan juices from the meat, skim the fat and put juices in a small bowl or jug for serving.
- When the vegetables are done, arrange them around the rested meat and serve at the table for everyone to help themselves. You can carve the meat into thick slices or, as I do, just pull big shreds away with a couple of forks. Drizzle everything with the pan juices.
Hi Dannii. My most failsafe way of doing this is to crank the heat right up at the end of cooking, preferably on a fan broil/grill setting (no steam). If the meat is cooked and the skin is nice and dry, it should only take perhaps 10-15 minutes to get it to crackle nicely. For a shoulder joint, where the skin won’t be a single flat piece like for a belly, I’d keep it on the lower shelves of the oven so you don’t blacken it on top before the sides heat up properly. And watch like a hawk, it’ll turn in seconds! I’ve been known to cover the top part of the skin with foil while waiting for the other bits to crackle up, if it’s browning too much.
Hi Emily,
How would I get crackling from the scored skin of a pork shoulder joint in the steam oven?
Thank you!
Hi Emily
Love your website, it has been my go to since installing our Bosch steam oven late last year. It has been a learning curve!
What would you recommend for beef topside? I have been unable to find a steam oven recipe for a topside roast using steam to get to an internal temperature for medium/rare. Or is it best cooked without steam for a cut like this?
Can you help?
Thankyou 🙂
CC
I have used a Dutch oven for exactly this dish in the past and it works fine! Your veg may be a little less browned but they’ll still cook really nicely.
I often wonder what pan will work best for a steam oven recipe, so I appreciate your note about the vegetables. The picture shows a cast iron roasting pan for the meat. I’m curious whether a cast iron Dutch oven would work as well, or would the sides be too high for effective cooking? Thanks!
With most steam oven cooking there’s no need for a lid. This is particularly true of combination steam, like in this recipe. You don’t mention which brand your oven is but I’d suggest if you’re getting enough humidity to dilute the pan juices at roasting temperatures, you either need to reduce the proportion of steam (if your oven has variable steam), or turn off the steam altogether in the last half hour of cooking. Some of the countertop steam ovens which don’t have control over the amount of steam can cook very wet, even at higher temps, so you need to create workarounds as you learn the oven. For roasting, I’d go with a top and bottom heat option.
Hello, I’m new to combination cooking. I can’t figure out if and when one covers the meat or not. Often it says tight fitting lid. If that is the case why bother with steam?
If the meat is uncovered then considerable steam condensation dilutes the pan juices. The cooking can vary from covered pan.
Further the oven has two steam bake settings. Top heat or both top and bottom heat?
Can you help us out with this. Thanks.
I’m not sure if perhaps there was a glitch in the email system when you signed up but I haven’t been able to replicate your issue, Manfred! If you are still having trouble please feel free to email me via the contact page on the site and I’ll get the cheat sheets to you manually.
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Manfred
This happened when I tried to get the brilliant stuff – any way to actually get it?
My first real cook in my new steam oven, it was so simple and super perfect! Used an inexpensive cut of beef, it was tender and beautifully browned. Thanks Emily, for helping build confidence and for such a great meal!
This is excellent! I followed your instructions to cook a boneless chuck roast just under 5 lbs. It was done in about 2.5 hrs, with a beautiful crust and tender, juicy interior. I used brussels sprouts instead of the zucchini and omitted the carrots, all of which were combi-steamed to perfection in 20 mins., including preheat (although of course I had just taken out the meat). The jus was lovely too. Such a simple recipe and so delicious! Thank you!
Thanks so much, Alicia, your adapted post looks great! All the Spanish-speaking steam oven cooks must be thrilled to have a site in their native language to help them get comfortable with their appliances. 🙂
Emily, thank you for this wonderful recipe. We have cooked it twice now and it has turned out delicious both times. We have adapted it for our blog about steam oven cooking (sorry it is in Spanish: https://www.hornodevapor.com/asar-una-carne-a-fuego-lento-receta-facil-y-resultona/) and linked our recipe to yours. We wanted to let our Spanish speaking readers know that, for us, your website is THE resource to go to for steam oven recipes and techniques.
Congratulations on the new website. As I said to you before, we will follow you wherever you go!
Best wishes from the Canary Islands.