Roast Pork with Carrots & Gravy

Ingredients

• 1.2 kg pork shoulder
• 600 g carrots, peeled and halved
• 600 g potatoes, cut into chunks
• 3 tbsp garlic-infused olive oil
• 2 sprigs fresh rosemary
• 4 sprigs fresh thyme
• Sea salt & black pepper, to season
• 500 ml low‑FODMAP chicken stock
• 1 tbsp cornflour (mixed with cold water)
• 25 g lactose-free butter
• 1 tbsp tamari
• 1 tbsp chopped chives
• Steamed seasonal greens, to serve

Method

1. Heat the oven to 160°C fan. Pat the pork shoulder properly dry with kitchen paper — water means steam, and steam means no crust. Rub all over with 1 tbsp garlic-infused oil and season generously with sea salt and black pepper, working it into every fold. Tuck the rosemary and thyme sprigs underneath and around the joint in a roasting tray.
2. Toss the carrots and potatoes with the remaining 2 tbsp garlic oil, season well, and arrange around the pork in a single layer — don't crowd them, or they'll steam instead of roasting and you'll lose the crisp edges. Roast on the middle shelf for about 2 hours, turning the veg once halfway, until the meat pulls easily under a fork and the potatoes are deep golden with crackling-crisp edges.
3. Lift the pork onto a board, cover loosely with foil and rest for a full 15 minutes. Skipping this is where Sunday lunches go wrong — the juices need to settle back into the fibres, otherwise they run out the moment you carve.
4. Pour off most of the excess fat from the roasting tray, but leave every dark sticky bit behind — that fond is the entire flavour of the gravy. Set the tray over medium heat on the hob, drop in the lactose-free butter, and scrape up all the browned residue with a wooden spoon as it foams.
5. Pour in the warm stock and tamari and bring to a steady simmer, still scraping. Whisk in the cornflour slurry a little at a time until the gravy thickens to a glossy sauce that coats the back of a spoon, about 2–3 minutes. Taste, season, taste again — most of the salt comes from the tamari, but a final pinch of pepper and salt ties it together. Adjust now, not at the table.
6. Carve the rested pork into thick slices against the grain. Plate up with the roasted carrots and potatoes alongside, spoon the hot gravy generously over the meat, and scatter the chopped chives and extra thyme leaves across everything. Finish each plate with a crack of black pepper.