Veggie Shepherd’s Pie with Sweet Potato Mash

Kind of blah actually



1tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, halved and sliced
2 really large carrots (500g/1lb 2oz in total), cut into sugar cube size pieces
2tbsp chopped thyme
200ml/7oz red wine
400g can chopped tomatoes
2 vegetable stock cubes
410g can of green lentils
950g/ 2 lb 2oz sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
25g/1oz butter
85g/3oz grated mature vegetarian cheddar
Heat the oil in a frying pan, then fry the onion till golden. Add the carrots and all but a sprinkling of thyme. Pour in the wine, 150ml water, and the tomatoes, then sprinkle in the stock cubes and simmer for 10 min. Tip in the can of lentils, including their juice, then cover and simmer for another 10 min until the carrots still have a bit of bite, and the lentils are pulpy.
Meanwhile, boil the sweet potatoes for 15 mins till tender, drain well, and mash with butter, and season to taste. Pile the lentil mixture into a pie dish, spoon the mash on top, then sprinkle over the cheese and remaining thyme (you can cover and chill at this point or keep frozen for up to a month). Heat oven to 190c cook for 20 mins if cooking straight away, or 40 mins from chilled, until golden and hot all the way through. Serve with broccoli.

From Good Food Magazine. This was a bit disappointing. It’s not so much that it wasn’t good, it just wasn’t special. There’s this certain flavor that I’ve always thought of as “The Vegetarian Entrée” taste. It’s kind of hard to explain, but back in college, where Vegetarian cafés were very in, often times all their food tasted alike. It was really good, but it was pretty much all the same too. That was “the vegetarian entrée flavor” I think it has something to do with the combination of lentils and tomato cooked in wine. Also, the flavor of the sweet potatoes was totally drowned out.

This was a perfectly fine dinner, but it didn’t blow me away.