Tag archives: vegetarian

Lentil Shepherd’s Pie with Sweet Potato Mash recipe

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!

Vegetable and lentil stew recipe

Probably better on a cold, winter night, but it was delicious in July anyway!

Ingredients – Makes enough for 4-5

Olive oil

750ml of vegetable stock

2 onions, peeled and chopped

2 carrots, peeled and diced

2 parsnips, peeled and diced

2 beetroot, peeled and diced

1 sweet potato, as big as your fist, peeled and diced

1 leek, sliced

2 sticks of celery, sliced

180g of red split lentils

2 cloves of garlic, crushed

227g tin of chopped tomatoes

Freshly ground black pepper

1 heaped teaspoon of ground coriander

1 heaped teaspoon of ground cumin

Juice of half a lemon

Method

Add a little oil to a big pan over a medium heat

Add half of the onion, all of the carrot, parsnip, beetroot, sweet potato, leek and celery.

Keep stirring and fry for about 5 minutes.

Add the garlic and the lentils, stir and cook for another 5 minutes.

Add the chopped tomatoes and stock, give it a stir and put a lid on the pan.

Let it simmer for about half an hour, until the veg is just about cooked.

In another pan, over a medium heat add a little more oil and add the remaining onion.

Add the ground coriander and cumin and fry for 10 minutes, don’t let the onion brown you just want to flavour it with the spices.

When soft, add the fried onion to the stew with the lemon juice, season with ground black pepper and give it a final stir.

Serve and nom!

Butternut squash, new potato and spinach curry recipe

Turns out we had some butternut squash and new potatoes that needed using up so I grabbed some spinach and threw some other stuff in a pan. It turned out nice!

Ingredients – Makes enough for 3

1 tablespoon of good olive oil

1 organic butternut squash, peeled and diced

6 or so new potatoes, diced

1 onion, sliced

150g of organic spinach, roughly chopped

A tin of coconut milk, I used the “light” stuff

2-3 tablespoons of Madras curry paste

Method

The potatoes take a little bit of cooking so get a pan of water on the boil and add them to it. Parboil them for about 10 minutes.

Whilst the potatoes are boiling add the olive oil to a pan, add the onion and fry until soft, with any luck the potatoes will also be ready at this point.

Drain the potatoes and set aside.

Add the Madras paste to the onions and fry for a few minutes.

About now you might want to raid the freezer for some naan bread…

Add the coconut milk, give it all a good stir and add the potatoes and butternut squash. Give it about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Keep a lid on the pan so that it doesn’t get too thick.

When the potatoes are cooked and before the squash starts to fall apart add the chopped spinach, stir through until it’s wilted.

Serve in your favourite bowl!

Sweet potato and Jarlsberg crumble recipe

Another recipe stolen from the lovely people at The Waiting Room and tweaked slightly. It easily makes enough for 6 or 4 very hungry people!

Ingredients

600g of organic sweet potatoes, the larger the better

2 or 3 red onions

200g of grated Jarlsberg cheese, or Gruyere, well, anything you want really!

½ pint of double cream

1 tablespoon of French mustard

Freshly ground black pepper

15g of jumbo oats

15g of pumpkin seeds

15g of sunflower seeds

10g of wholemeal flour

20g of strong white flour

75g of unsalted butter

Method

Preheat oven to 200C (reduce if you’ve got a fan oven).

Peel the sweet potatoes and slice either with a mandoline or sharp knife so they’re  3-4mm thick

Do exactly the same with the red onions.

Place alternate layers of sweet potato, red onion and cheese in a large baking dish until you’ve used all your ingredients, try to end on a layer of sweet potato covered in cheese.

Add the French mustard to the double cream and season with freshly ground black pepper, pour over the layered ingredients.

Mix together the oats, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and flours into a crumble mix. Sprinkle over the top of the layered ingredients.

Break the butter up into chunks and dot over the top of the crumble.

Cover with foil and bake for an hour, remove the foil and then return to the oven for 30 minutes. Keep checking occasionally at this point, you don’t want the crumble mix to burn!

Serve with rosemary and garlic potatoes and your favourite coleslaw.

Butternut squash and blue cheese risotto recipe

“Amazing” is the only word I can use to describe this, the risotto is creamy yet ever so slightly salty from the cheese. The recipe below made more than enough for 4 (probably enough for 6) so I had left overs for lunch the next day.

Ingredients

  • 1 big organic butternut squash (the one I used was 1.4KG)
  • 1 tablespoon of olive oil
  • Ground black pepper
  • 1 large organic onion
  • 75g of unsalted butter
  • A bottle of white wine (You can drink most of it)
  • 1.5litres of vegetable stock
  • 300g of soft blue cheese (I couldn’t find Gorgonzola so I used Saint Agur)
  • 500g of risotto rice

Method

  • Preheat oven to 220C (reduce if you’ve got a fan oven).
  • Peel, halve, deseed and slice the butternut squash, drizzle with the olive oil and season with ground black pepper.
  • Place the seasoned squash on a baking tray and bake in the oven until soft (40 minutes was enough for me, turn the squash after 20).
  • Remove the squash from the oven and chop into bite size pieces.
  • Add the butter to a large pan and melt over a medium heat.
  • Finely dice the onion and add to the pan, cook until soft.
  • Add the risotto rice, stir until coated in butter.
  • Add a small glass of white wine, stir, drink the rest of the bottle.
  • Turn the heat down to low.
  • Add the stock, one ladle at a time, stir continuously until the rice has taken up the liquid then add another ladle of stock until it’s all gone. Now is probably not the time for a game of Angry Birds, you need to stir all the time and not let the rice stick to the pan. This will probably take half an hour.
  • At the very last minute add the chopped butternut squash and stir.
  • Break the blue cheese into chunks, add it to the risotto and stir.
  • Check the seasoning, you probably don’t want to add any salt but fire away with the black pepper!
  • Serve with some freshly baked focaccia and more wine.