With the cold nights and darker evenings, is there anything better than a comfort food? The only problem is where to start. But don’t fear, we have a series of delicious, autumnal recipes to add to your collection.
Our first is a yummy shepherdess pie. This slightly oddly named lentil and sweet potato shepherd’s pie is the perfect autumnal vegetarian dinner. Hearty and filling vegetarian food is often hard to come by but this one of my cold weather staples. It’s a perfect student recipe: full of cheap, store cupboard ingredients, vegetables and great for meal prep! If you are in a rush, I like to prepare and freeze some of the vegetables in advanced. This recipe is also great for batch-cooking and I often make a few individual pies and pop them in the freezer – even when they are reheated, they taste delicious!
Ingredients:
- 2-3 Potatoes
- 2 Sweet Potatoes
- 3 tbsp Butter
- Splash of Milk
- Handful of Grated Cheese
- 1 Onion
- 1/2 Cloves of Garlic
- 1 tbsp Oil
- 2 Carrots
- 2 Sticks of Celery
- A Handful of Mushrooms
- 1 tbsp Tomato Puree
- 1 Tin of Chopped Tomatoes
- 1 Tin of Green Lentils
- 1 Vegetable Stock Cube
- Salt and Pepper
- Preheat the oven to 200⁰C.
- Peel and boil both types of potato until soft, then mash with the milk, 1 tbsp of butter, salt, and pepper.
- Finely chop the onion and garlic and fry with a little oil in a large pan.
- Whilst the onions and garlic cook, dice the carrots, celery, and mushrooms before adding them to the pan.
- Once the vegetables are soft, add the lentils, tomato puree, tin of tomatoes and stock cube.
- Season with salt and lots of pepper and cook on a medium temperature until the sauce is a rich, dark colour.
- To assemble, add the lentils and sauce to a large oven proof dish (or 3 smaller tin foil dishes so you can save some for later!)
- Add the mash to the top of the dish and finish with a handful of grated cheese and a few knobs of butter.
- Put the dish in the oven and bake until golden. Enjoy!