It is that time of year when you want meals that fuel your body with warmth, like central heating. That is exactly what this vegetarian cottage pie did for us at dinner time last night. Daddy came home to the waft of dinner swirling it’s aroma around the house and it tasted delicious to boot. It reminded me of when I was a child and my Mumma used to make meals like this.

Vegetarian cottage pie

I used a combination of recipes from Jamie Oliver to make this rather delicious wintery meal. I had to use two dishes as there was a lot too!
Prep Time 25 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour 25 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 50 minutes
Servings 10
Author Jamie Oliver

Ingredients

For the bottom layer

  • 3 medium onions
  • 2 carrots
  • 2 sticks of celery
  • 2 sprigs of fresh rosemary
  • A punnet of mushrooms
  • olive oil
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 600 g Quorn mince 2 bags
  • 1 teaspoon of mustard
  • 1 teaspoon of Vegemite
  • 2 tablespoons of flour
  • 1 vegetable stock cube
  • 1 litre of boiling water
  • 1 glass of red wine

For the top layer

  • 1 kg white potatoes
  • 6 g of butter
  • splash of milk
  • Sprig of rosemary

Instructions

For the bottom layer

  • Peel and roughly chop up the raw vegetables until they are quite fine. Keep the mushrooms separate at this stage.
  • Remove rosemary leaves from stalk.
  • Place large casserole/stew dish on the hob, with 2 lugs of olive oil. Add the vegetables, except for the mushrooms, add the rosemary and bay leaves too.
  • Stir the raw vegetables for around 10 minutes, until soft. Then add the mushrooms.
  • Stir the mushrooms into the soft vegetables and cook for another few minutes.
  • Stir in the Quorn mince with a wooden spoon.
  • Add the mustard and Vegemite and give it a good stir, the Vegemite can be quite thick and gloopy.
  • Add the vegetable stock cube to the litre of boiling water and give it a good stir.
  • Add half the stock to the vegetables and give it a good stir.
  • Add the glass of red wine and stir.
  • Bring to the boil.
  • Turn the heat down and simmer the mixture for around 30 minutes, then you need to add the rest of the stock.
  • Simmer gently for another 15 minutes. Whilst we make the potato layer.

For the top layer

  • Peel all the potatoes and cut them into cubes.
  • Add them to a pan of boiling water.
  • Boil the potatoes for around 10 minutes, or until soft.
  • Drain the potatoes in a colinder and place back in the pan.
  • Mash the potatoes with the butter and add a splash of milk too.
  • Once the potatoes are mashed, add more milk if you want it creamier.

Bringing it all together

  • When the mash is ready and you are happy the bottom layer has stewed for long enough, place into baking dishes (I used Jamie Oliver's pie dish) and spread the mash on top.
  • Using a fork scrap a criss cross pattern in to the mash.
  • Add a few springs of rosemary on top.
  • Bake for 25 minutes and serve.

Notes

Great for batch cooking, freeze up portions ready for a quick meal on another night.
Adapted from Sonia Constant

 

What do you think?

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




1 Comment