Cottage Pie

I don’t know what it is about the shift from autumn to winter but all I want right now is old-fashioned comfort food. The kind of stuff I ate when I was a child. I remember coming home from school and smelling the most wonderful aromas coming out of the tiny kitchen at the back of our house. It would take me quite a while to walk down the hall, through the back room (probably a ‘snug’ nowadays) and all that time I’d be trying to guess what was for dinner. Some things were unmistakable, but other times it would just be a lovely rich, oniony, scrumptious smell which would have my 10 year old tummy rumbling before I’d even dumped my schoolbag. Cottage Pie was one of those ‘I have no idea what’s cooking, but I want it now!’ type of smells.

When I became vegetarian in my teens I tried to replicate many different dishes with dried soya mince, but I was always disappointed. Fast forward to today – vegan, and rejoicing in the range of options we now have available to us! We can go purely plant based – make your mince out of pulverised mushrooms or walnuts. Or do as I’ve done an opt for one of the meat substitutes. I know, not everyone likes them, but I don’t mind them, and my partner really enjoys pea-protein based substitutes. So that’s what’s being used here. Feel free to substitute for lentils or veggies if you prefer.

The amount of mashed potato this recipe generates is deliberately too much for the pie – I always make extra so I can do tattie scones the next day, so feel free to scale back if you want.

Recipe

450g pea-protein mince OR 300g mince + 200g chopped mushrooms

1 large onion

2 carrots

1 stick celery

2 cloves of garlic

2 bay leaves

350ml vegan beef flavour stock

1 tsp mixed herbs

Browning (optional, but I like it)

3tbs Bisto Original gravy granules, mixed with 150ml boiling water

450g sweet potato

600g white potato

1 leek or small red onion

40g butter

splash of oat milk

1/3 cup nutritional yeast

1tsp all purpose seasoning

salt and pepper

• Peel and chop the carrot, onion and celery and begin to soften them off in a large pan.

• While they’re sauteeing, peel and chop the potatoes and bring them to the boil in a large pan of salted water.

• Add the broken up mince (and mushrooms if using) to the veggies and cook till slightly browned and the veggies are cooked through, then add the garlic.

• Pour over you stock, herbs and pop in the bay leaves – cover and leave to cook for around 5mins.

• In a separate small frying pan, gently sauté the leek or red onion until soft, but not brown – set aside.

• Once the potatoes are soft, drain thoroughly, and quickly mix through the butter, milk, nutritional yeast and seasoning, mashing it all up together until completely smooth. Check seasoning. Mix through the cooked leek or red onion.

• Make up the Bisto gravy granules – it will produce a super thick gravy, but that’s ok as you’ll now add this mixture to your mince. Add some Browning at this stage if you like. It’s really only for aesthetics, but I do like my mince to look dark. It’s strong stuff so go easy!

• Assemble the cottage pie – mince on the bottom, topped with your lovely potato mix and bung it in the oven (200C for around 20 mins). You can top with a little grated cheese before cooking if that takes your fancy.