Veggie cottage pie

With Autumn very much underway, this simple, hearty, vegetarian cottage pie packed full of healthy vegetables and lentils hits the spot.

Not sure whether this should this be a shepherd’s or cottage pie though … either way it tastes great and is ideal for an autumn midweek dinner. You can swap the lentils for borlotti or butter beans – both work really well.

Prep 25 min
Cook 1 hr 35 min
Serves 6-8

Ingredients

10g dried porcini mushrooms
2 large leeks
3 carrots
500g swede
500g celeriac
Olive oil
3 sprigs fresh rosemary
1 tsp cumin seeds
Salt and black pepper
2kg potatoes
40g unsalted butter
1 splash semi-skimmed milk
1 onion
1 tsp Marmite
3 tbsp tomato puree
1 x 400g tin green lentils

Method

Heat the oven to 190C (170C)/gas 5. In a blender, cover the porcini with 600ml boiling water. Trim, wash and slice the leeks 2cm thick, then scrub the carrots, swede and celeriac and chop to roughly the same size.

Drizzle two tablespoons of oil into a large casserole pan on a medium heat, strip in the rosemary, fry for one minute to crisp up, then transfer to a plate with a slotted spoon. Add the cumin seeds and prepped veg to the flavoured oil, season with sea salt and black pepper, then cook for 30 minutes, stirring regularly.

Meanwhile, peel and roughly chop the potatoes, cook in a pan of boiling salted water for 15 minutes, or until tender, then drain well. Mash with the butter and milk, and season to taste. Peel and quarter the onion, add to the porcini in the blender, along with the Marmite and tomato puree, and whizz until smooth. Pour into the veg pan and cook for 20 minutes, or until dark and caramelised, stirring regularly and scraping up any sticky bits from the bottom of the pan.

Tip the lentils (juices and all) into the veg pan, bring to a boil, then season to taste. Spoon over the mash, place on a tray, bake for 30 minutes, or until light golden and bubbling at the edges, then sprinkle over the crispy rosemary.

Serve with simple steamed seasonal greens.

An edited version of this recipe is from Jamie Oliver’s latest book – Veg.