Hearty Winter Dishes: Rich Lentil Cottage Pie

The weather was bracing as I left the office this evening and it's yet another night for a hearty, delicious winter meal. As it turns out, my husband is coming down with the cold and is feeling sick and sorry for himself, so comfort food is once again needed in our household. All things considered, I thought it best to tell you all about another favourite mid-week comfort meal at Whisk & Whimsy HQ.

This little favourite is vegetarian, although we clearly are not! I'm not a big fan of mincey meals, I don't particularly like using ground meat although I will, on occasion. For that reason, traditional cottage pie has never had an appeal. I've tried and tested and modified and developed a vego lentil cottage pie from a Delicious magazine recipe and in its final form this has become a W&W staple. The base is so rich and tasty, and it is a great way to sneak fibre into your diet. My husband is the second least vegetarian person I know, with the least vegetarian person being my Dad, and both subjects have given their approval to this dish with rave reviews.

(serves 6)

There is no pretty way to photograph this dish so you will just have to trust me that it's scrumptious and the perfect thing to curl up with on the sofa on a cold night. This is a big warm hug in a bowl. [Actually, I guess there may be a way to photograph this dish so it looks as appealing as it tastes, but I seem to have neither the time, skill nor props to be able to do it. One day!].

Anyway, let's get to the important stuff:

What you need:

For the filling -

A glug of olive oil

2-3 celery stalks, sliced about a half cm thick

2 large carrots, peeled and chopped

2 garlic cloves, crushed

1/2 cup (loosely packed) chopped semi sun-dried tomatoes

1 tin chopped Italian tomatoes (double this for a richer sauce)

1 tbs tomato paste

1 tsp sugar

1 bay leaf

few sprigs of fresh thyme, leaves picked

1 cup vegetable (or chicken) stock

2 x 400g tins brown lentils , rinsed and drained (or you could use an equivalent quantity of dried lentils soaked overnight, although I don't)

Topping -

About 800g potatoes, peeled and diced

100g unsalted butter

1/2 cup milk

100g grated cheddar cheese

2 egg yolks (- as an aside, you don't need the eggwhites, but don't chuck them! Put them in a ziplock bag and freeze them. You can use them for a meringue or a pav another time).

What to do:

Preheat oven to 200C.

Heat oil in a large pan over medium heat and cook onion for a couple of minutes, before adding the garlic. Cook 1-2 minutes but be careful to ensure garlic does not burn. Add the celery and carrots and stir for a minute to coat in the oil and garlic, then add all remaining filling ingredients except the lentils. Allow to simmer gently for about 20 minutes until the veggies have softened. Stir through the lentils and season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Transfer the filling to an appropriately sized deep baking dish (see below for tips on excess filling).

Meanwhile, cover potatoes in cold, salted water and bring to the boil, allowing to continue boiling until potatoes are tender. Drain potatoes and mash them in the saucepan. Stir in the butter, milk, egg yolks and cheese. Spread over the filling and drag a fork over the potatoes to roughen them a bit - the rough parts will get crispy in the oven.

Bake 15 - 20 minutes in the preheated oven until bubbling and the potato is golden.

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As an added bonus, the filling freezes very well - if you have leftovers you can put them in a freezer-safe ramekin and wrap well with plastic wrap. Plonk them in the deep freeze for those days when you have some mashed potato left over and you have an instant easy, delicious, meal. In such circumstances, I defrost the filling through the day and bake with leftover mash on top (I just use 'straight' leftover mash for these, rather than with the egg and cheese etc) for about 15 min or so until toasty on top and heated through.