Blatantly stolen from Becka Eats this is the first meal we had in Veggie August. The lentils give it a great texture and the sweet potato mash with nutmeg tastes amazing!
Ingredients – Makes enough 4 with leftovers for lunch.
Olive oil
Freshly ground black pepper
Half a cup of Puy lentils (I could only find Lentille Verte)
Half a cup of green lentils
2 bay leaves
2 onions, peeled and chopped
3 cloves of garlic, crushed (Just like your hopes and dreams)
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
3 tablespoons of tomato purée
1 tablespoon of dried oregano
3 large carrots, peeled and diced
1 vegetarian stock cube (I used a Knorr Stock Pot)
250ml of red wine (Why not drink the rest of the bottle?)
3-4 large sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped into equal sized chunks
A splash of milk
A wedge of butter
Freshly grated nutmeg
Method
Wash the lentils, add them to a pan with the bay leaves. Cover with water and and bring to the boil. All in all they probably want around half an hour, you don’t want them to turn to mush so keep an eye on them.
Meanwhile put your sweet potatoes in a pan, cover with water and get them onto boil, they probably want 20-30 minutes.
After you’ve got that sorted, add a little olive oil to a big pan and add the onion, carrots and garlic. Over a medium heat sauté them for about 10 minutes but don’t let them brown. Add the tomatoes, tomato purée, wine, pepper, oregano and stock pot. Give it all a good stir and cook for another 10-15 minutes until it’s thickened.
Now would be a good point to pre-heat your oven on to finish off the dish, 200C should be enough.
Around now the lentils should be done, drain them and add them to your tomato sauce. Give it all another good stir and keep warm on a low heat.
Once the sweet potato is cooked drain the water from it, add a good wedge of butter, a splash of milk and half a grated nutmeg. Give it a good mash and check the seasoning.
Spoon the tomato lentil sauce into a baking dish and top with the sweet potato mash, rough it up with the tines of a fork and put it in the oven for 10 or 15 minutes until the mash starts to brown.
Shovel a generous helping into a bowl and enjoy!