Lentil Cottage Pie + Satisfying Food Cravings

Cooking tonight ended up being a bit rushed as we spent most of the afternoon at Liam's parents "talking wedding" and lost track of time...dinner still turned out well though!

Lentil Cottage Pie
(serves 4)

• 650-700g potatoes, peeled and chopped
• butter
• splash milk
• oil
• 1 onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 500g passata (or a tin of chopped tomatoes)
• 400g tin of green lentils in water, drained
• 3-4 carrots, peeled and grated
• splash of soy sauce
• 70g cheddar, grated

Put the potatoes in a pan of boiling water and cook for approx 25 minutes. Once cooked, drain and mash with the butter and milk.

Meanwhile, fry the onion and garlic in a little oil. Add the passata and simmer until there are 10 minutes left of the potato cooking time. At this stage add the grated carrots and the drained lentils, plus soy sauce to taste, and continue to simmer.

To prepare the cottage pie, first put the lentil mix into the dish (depending on the size of your dish, you may not need all of it - I was able to save back approx one pasta sauce portion). Put the mash potato on top and smooth down. Finally sprinkle evenly with the grated cheese (optional - growing up I never had cheese on top of cottage pie, but Liam loves it!)

Bake at approx 170C for 25 minutes, or until cheese/potatoes are golden and slightly crispy.

Enjoy!

This was really delicious. Liam commented that it tasted like "normal" cottage pie, which I think was meant as praise!! The green lentils give a really 'meaty' texture so work well as a mince replacement if you don't want to use fake meat. We always put grated carrot in our bolognese style sauces...I find them so bland without now, and it's a great way to get extra veg in. I would normally also serve this with peas, but I completely forgot. I clearly wasn't quite all there whilst cooking either, as just after I added the passata to this, I realised that cottage pie usually has a stock-based sauce rather than tomato-based, but hey, it worked! The leftover lentil mix can go in the freezer for me to have one time when the others have meat spag bol so that will save effort also...win win!

I haven't managed to photograph all my food today. There was a huge latte first thing to wake me up. And while I was cooking, I nibbled on "just one square" of Lindt dark chocolate with sea salt, which turned into the whole 100g bar...whoops...lucky dinner took a while to cook to allow me to become hungry again!

I did however photograph my lunch. I couldn't decide what to have, but knew I fancied either avocado or egg of some kind. In the end I decided to keep it simple and satisfy my cravings. A whole, perfectly ripe avocado, served with 2 boiled eggs and a drizzle of agave nectar.

The combo may sound a bit strange, but it tasted fantastic. The sweetness of the agave, for me, brought it all together, but you could go with something like balsamic vinegar if you don't have such a sweet tooth! Sometimes giving your body exactly what it wants is a good thing...I just hope my body starts asking for savoury/nutrient-full things more often rather than just peanut butter, chocolate, peanut butter!!

I can't believe Saturday is almost over already, today has gone by so quickly! Liam's back at work again tomorrow, boo, it's quite nice having him around sometimes!! :) How have everyone else's Saturdays been? Any favourite strange-sounding food combinations that actually work really well? The other one I love is medjool dates stuffed with goat's cheese, although I don't think that is that strange...anything goes well with cheese!