Shepherd’s Pie

• Soak your lentils in water for 2/3 hours before you start cooking. If you don’t do this they will take a lot longer to cook.

• Peel, wash and put your potatoes on to boil.

• Finely dice your onions, carrots, celery and mushrooms and crush your garlic.

• Put a casserole pot on a medium heat and add your soya butter.

• When melted add the onions and sweat them off until they start to go translucent.

• Add the garlic and sweat until both the onion and garlic are soft and translucent.

• Add the rest of the veg and cook for another 10 minutes – stirring constantly.

• When the veg has softened and started to brown add in your flour and stir through so it coats the veg.

• Then add the flavourings – salt, pepper, cinnamon, mixed herbs and parsley. Stir these through.

• Make 500ml of stock using your water and vegetable stock cube.

• Mix the tomato puree into the stock.

• Then start adding your stock to the veg very slowly. Every time your pour some stock into the veg stir it through until it has absorbed and slightly thickened.

• Then drain your lentils and them to the pot and stir through.

• If this makes the mixture too dry add some more boiling water in small amounts. If you need to add a lot of water you can throw in another half a stock cube so you don’t dilute all the flavour.

• Leave the mixture to simmer for around 40-45 minutes but check it and stir it constantly to make sure it doesn’t burn. Keep the heat low to avoid this happening.

• Add in a about a tablespoon of brown sauce at the end of the cooking process and stir it though.

• When the lentil mix is cooked through add it to your baking dish.

• Mash your potatoes with soya butter and unsweetened soya milk or another plant milk (I would not recommend anything sweet or almond milk).

• Spread the mashed potato over the top of the lentil mix, smoothing it out with a fork. We added some parsley on top.

• If you have any Violife cheese you could add this over the top but that is optional.

• Then bake the shepherd’s pie a hot oven for 20-30 minutes until the potato starts to go golden brown. If you don’t bake it until the following day it will need longer.

• When it’s ready put your hands together and give thanks that NO animal was harmed in the making of your dinner and enjoy!

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