One thing about being vegetarian is that my protein pretty much comes from one place: legumes. Sure cooking with eggs and dairy helps, but the vast majority of my protein comes from beans, lentils and tofu. And one of the bad habits that you can get into is cooking yourself the same thing over and over again until you get bored and end up in some kind of potato chip/chocolate binge fest. In the interest of expanding my weekly cooking I badgered my mum for her shepherds pie recipe. And here it is. Keep in mind that I’m a very go by feel kind of cooks so my I don’t tend to measure, so much as taste.
Ingredients:
1 Tablespoon of Olive Oil
2 Onions
5 Cloves of Garlic
2 Tablespoons of Paprika
1 Teaspoon of Crushed Chilli
1 Tablespoon of Cumin Powder
6 Cups of Vegetable Stock
2 Cups of Lentils
1 Cup of Mushrooms (Diced)
2 Cups of Sweet Potato (Diced
2 Cups of Celery (Diced)
2 Cups of Carrot (Diced)
1/2 Cup of Tomato Paste
1 Tablespoon of Soy Sauce
1 Tablespoon of Rice Vinegar
Salt (to Taste)
10 Potatoes
Butter and Milk (to taste)
2 Tablespoons of Whole Egg Mayonnaise.
Method:
Put the lentils in the vegetable stock and bring to the boil – simmer for 45 minutes and set aside.
Fry up the onions with the spices and the garlic until translucent and then add in the vegetables, tomato paste, soy sauce, vinegar and salt to taste. Once the vegetables are tender, mix through the drained lentils and put the mixture at the bottom of your baking dish.
Boil the potatoes to make the mashed potato topping, when cooked – strain and mash with butter milk, mayonnaise and salt to taste. Put on top of the lentil mixture in your baking dish.
Put the pie in the oven at 180 degrees for about 45 minutes until the potato is golden on top.
I made this so I could make up three of my baking dishes which would probably serve 3-4 each. So you can reduce the ingredients if you don’t quite want to make that much. I like it because now I’ve cooked dinner and have a couple of emergency dinners in the freezer for when I can’t be bothered to cook.