Mmmmmm! Vegetarian Shepherd's Pie

You might have guessed it:  I'm a vegetarian.  Have been for many many many years.  I didn't choose this nutritional path because I was morally offended by the meat industry - I actually went on a protein diet where I ate 3 steaks per day, trying to weigh 50kg (still haven't managed to do that...) and got so sick from all that meat that I swore I would never eat it again.  And I never did.  

Nowadays, I eat some fish every now and then, but mostly vegetarian food.  I also used to be  one of the few vegetarians out there who didn't like vegetables, but even that has slowly but surely changed over the years.  With good friends like my friend Elma (from elmaskitchen.blogspot.com) who can cook up a storm, I'm not short of inspiration.


Here's a delicious Vegetarian Shepherd's Pie recipe that I (sort-of) made up on my own:

VEGETARIAN SHEPHERD’S PIE

Ingredients:

1 can of chopped tomatoes (roughly 300g)

1 can of baked beans in tomato sauce (roughly 300g)

1 can of (ready-cooked) lentils (also roughly 300g)

1 tablespoon tomato paste

some Italian herbs (half a teaspoon)

2 cloves of garlic, crushed

1 large onion, chopped

around 750g of potatoes, peeled and cut into blocks

around 250g parsnips/carrots/sweet potatoes/pumpkin, peeled and cubed

olive oil

Grated cheese (optional)

Salt & pepper

Method:

Preheat the oven at 200C.

Start by boiling the potatoes and parsnips/carrots/sweet potatoes/pumpkin in some salted water, until tender.

In the meantime:

Fry the onion in some olive oil, and when it becomes a bit translucent, add the garlic.  Fry this for another 2-3 minutes.

Add the Italian herbs, the chopped tomatoes, tomato paste, the lentils and the baked beans.

Let everything simmer for roughly 10-12 minutes.  It should reduce a bit.

Season to taste.

Drain the potato-veggies, and mash it with a bit of butter & (soy)milk

Pour the lentil, tomato & baked beans-mixture into an oven dish. 

Spread the mashed potatoes/veg mix on top and rake with a fork.
Dot with some butter to brown in the oven.

You could grate some cheese on top – this makes for a nice ‘crispy’ layer on top.

Season with black pepper.

Pop it in the oven for roughly 20 minutes. 

We usually eat our shepherd’s pie with peas or broccoli, any dark green veggie.

It should be enough to feed 2 adults and 2 kids for 2 days.  Of course you could add more lentils & baked beans if you enjoy larger portions.