It's colder now than it has been all winter, and nothing seems more fitting than a nice pie. Here's a healthy twist on the obligatory student cottage pie. It's made with lentils rather than beef (or the lamb, as in shepherd's pie). However, it's got bags of flavour and still manages to comfort and nourish. It ticks all the boxes of its meaty brethren, and a few hardened meat eaters have even said they prefer it!
I was reminded of this great pie recently by my good friend Beth, who cooked a really tasty version of it when I went around a few weeks ago (thanks Beth!). I used to have something very similar when I was younger. My family are more or less vegetarian, and although I've always eaten meat, I used to love this. To my surprise, Nigel Slater makes a very similar pie. This is a bit of mix of all of the above.
I'm not vegetarian myself, so I was happy to use beef stock which gave it a great depth of flavour (I've actually been really impressed by the Knorr Beef 'stock pot' variety that come as little tubs of jelly) - If you'd like to make a fully veggie version, feel free to use a good vegetable stock instead.
This served 5 very generously
- 2 onions
- 2 carrots
- 1 stick of celery
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 1 pack of chestnut mushrooms (350g)
- olive oil
- 1/2 pack of dried lentils (about 250g) - I used green lentils (far cheaper than puy, but still worked nicely)
- 500ml of stock
- spinach - for this I used frozen spinach (about 7-8 of the frozen pellets) - probably about the same as a 500g pack
- a couple of bay leaves
- some fresh thyme
- balsamic vinegar
- worcester sauce
- 1-1.5 kg potatoes - a floury variety, to make the mash for the top
This dish is not complicated, but has a few components that need to be cooked separately. If you can get them all going at once and keep track of everything, then go for it!
Lentils
Start off by getting the lentils going. Cover the dried lentil with plenty of cold water and bring to the boil. See the pack for cooking times. Mine took about 30 mins. Ultimately, you want them to be cooked through, but still holding their shape. Once they're done I'd suggest draining them and rising under cold water to stop them cooking and keep their texture.
Mash
Peel the potatoes and chop into chunks. Cover with boiling water and cook until tender. Leave to drain for while before mashing it up with some butter when you get a chance.
Vegetables
While the lentils and potatoes are cooking, get a large pan (or oven-proof dish) onto the hob with some olive oil. As it heats, finely chop the carrots, onions and celery. Add to the pan with the bay leaves and thyme and fry on a fairly low heat until sweet and the carrots are just getting soft. This takes time, but does make a difference. Plus, it gives you time to cook the mushrooms in another pan. For this, chop the mushrooms up and fry in another big pan, over a high heat this time so that the fluid that comes out is able to evaporate.
Bringing it all together
Once the veg are almost there, combine them in a large dish and add the hot stock. Keep the pan on the heat and drop in the frozen spinach and stir until they've thawed. Season the mixture with a few tablespoons of balsamic vinegar, a dash of worcester sauce and some pepper (it may not need any salt because of the stock). At this stage you want the fluid level to be just level with the veg mix.
Into the oven
Pile on the mash, and bake in the oven at about 180 degrees for 40-50 mins or until golden on top and bubbling around the edges. Heaven.