When creating vegetarian versions of traditional meat dishes, I don't just think about taste but texture too, as in my opinion this is equally important. I start by thinking of all the vegetarian ingredients available to me, and how I might use them to mimic the meat element of the dish as closely as possible. As many of you will know I like to use beans and lentils in my bolognese recipes, as I find these work wonderfully for the 'meaty' texture. But for this cottage pie I tried to think of how I would get the 'mince' element to be meaty yet drier than the bolognese, as it is much less 'saucey' and needs not to be sloppy since the mash is a soft texture as well. It needed a bit of 'bite'. So that's when I thought of using the grain freekeh in addition to lentils and beans, which is quite similar in texture to kamut grain, yet smaller and therefore less prominent when eating the finished dish. I am extremely happy with how it turned out, hence why I can proudly share this recipe with you, and hope you enjoy it as much as I do!
I also decided to use a mixture of sweet potato, butternut squash and white rooster potatoes for the topping, as I enjoy the sweet flavours and figure this adds further nutrients to the meal. But it is equally tasty with 100% white potato if this is what you like, and I recommend something like roosters rather than a floury variety as they make an excellent mash.
What you will need: (makes enough for 2 portions)
50g freekeh
50g green lentils
1 medium sweet potato
1/2 butternut squash
3 medium white potatoes
1 large onion
6 cloves garlic
2 large carrots
1 1/2 cups cooked-from-dried* or 1 carton red kidney beans
Knob butter
Pinch nutmeg
2 tsp wholegrain mustard
1 tblsp tomato puree
1 tsp honey
1 cup water
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
2 tsp parsley
1 tblsp thyme
1 tblsp rosemary
1 tblsp red wine
* I always have a stash of cooked-from-dried beans in little jars in the freezer, which is super handy if you do a lot of vegetarian cooking. Please see my previous post on the easiest way to batch cook beans.
Method:
Measure out the freekeh and green lentils, then put them both in a pan together and cover with plenty of cold water. Bring to the boil and then simmer for about 20-25 minutes until softened.
Drain and set aside.
Peel and dice the sweet potato, squash and white potatoes.
Peel and slice the carrots.
Steam all of these for about 20 minutes until soft. Set aside the cooked carrots. Mash the sweet potato, squash and white potato together with the knob of butter and pinch of nutmeg, and set aside as well.
Peel and dice the onion and garlic. Saute in a large frying pan with a dessert spoon of coconut oil for 5 minutes until softened.
Add the freekeh and green lentils to the pan, and cook for 5-10 minutes, allowing the mixture to get slightly dry and crunchy. Before I became vegetarian and used to make cottage pie with mince, I would cook the mince, then drain off the fat, and continue to cook the mince until it started to get slightly crunchy. I much preferred this to soft and chewy meat! So doing this with the freekeh and lentils mimics this process as closely as I can.
If using kidney beans from a carton/can, drain and rinse well. Half-mash the the beans using a potato masher. This will add to the 'meatiness' of the dish.
Add the beans to the pan, along with the cooked carrots, mustard, tomato puree, honey, water, salt, pepper, parsley, thyme, rosemary and red wine. Mix well and continue to cook for a further 5 minutes.
Spoon the mixture evenly into a suitable oven-proof dish. The mixture should half-fill the dish, as we need room for the mash without it overflowing!
Spread the mash evenly over the top, and use a fork to create furrows, as this gives it a lovely texture once cooked - crunchy mash on top and soft mash underneath. Yummy. Pop into a preheated oven at 200 degrees Celsius for about 45 minutes until it feels crunchy on top.
Serve and enjoy!
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Many thanks.
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