Hi guys, welcome back for another not so strictly seasonal. Remember when I made those sweet potatoes and I said it was a stretch to include them because the season ends late December into early January? Well, it’s now late January for me and it’s February for you and once again I’m here with my sweet potatoes in a vegan cottage pie.
Strictly Seasonal Ingredients?
This dish contains mushrooms which are more autumnal, onions (all year), sweet potato (autumn into early winter) and potatoes (WINTER!). But, in my defence, think of an appropriate season to eat something like a cottage pie. You’re probably thinking a cold winter evening, right? Well, I hope you are because that’s the logic I’m going with here.
HelloFresh Recipe Matchmaker
The inspiration for this recipe came from the HelloFresh Recipe Matchmaker*. It’s their service for finding recipes, you can choose from different categories and it gives you suggestions. For example, you can search by individual meats, tofu, rice etc. Within each section, it gives you further options such as heaty, vegetarian or child friendly. I was looking through all of the sections and happened to find this one under broccoli and child friendly. The original recipe is a more traditional cottage pie, containing meat and cheese. But I liked the sound of the other vegetables in the dish and a hearty recipe like this one felt wintery enough for Strictly Seasonal even if the ingredients weren’t.
That’s something I recommend in general if you have dietary requirements. Look at everything and think about how you could adapt it rather than narrowing your search straight away. You could miss something great doing it that way! If I’m looking at recipes online or a cookbook, I always look at everything and adapt it if necessary. Of course, if you don’t like adapting, there are other options available. I really liked the look of this broccoli stir fry but there was zero chance of me pretending that was remotely seasonal so…another day.
Recipe Changes
The recipe called for some cheese for the top, which I skipped, but can also be easily swapped for dairy free if necessary. And the beef, obviously. I switched the beef out for some green lentils and it didn’t require a lot of adjustments in terms of the recipe. The meaty version starts by boiling the potatoes then moves on to the beef and vegetables. I started with my lentils and vegetables as the lentils take longer to cook than it takes to brown beef and everything else is pretty much the same.
You can check out the original recipe here, but this recipe is dairy free, gluten free, vegan, nut free and soy free.
Vegan Cottage Pie
This recipe is dairy free, gluten free, vegan, nut free and soy free.
Ingredients
- 1 Onion
- 1 Garlic Clove
- 1 punnet Closed Cup Mushrooms
- 100 g Tenderstem Broccoli
- 1 Sweet Potato
- 1 cup Green Lentils
- 30 grams Butter dairy free
- 30 grams Tomato Puree
- 1 tin Chopped Tomatoes
- 1 tbsp Vegetarian Worcester Sauce
- 2 cups Vegetable Stock
- 1 Potato
Extras:
- Oil
- ½ tbsp Rosemary optional
- 60 g Cheese for the top optional
Instructions
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Preheat your oven to 220°C and put a large saucepan of water with a pinch of salt on to boil for the potatoes. Halve, peel and chop the onion into roughly 1cm pieces. Peel and grate the garlic(or use a garlic press). Chop the mushrooms into roughly 1cm pieces. Separate the broccoli into florets. Peel and chop both types of potato into roughly 2cm cubes.
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Heat a glug of oil in a large pan on medium heat. Add the onion and cook until soft, 4 mins. Add the garlic and mushrooms and rosemary (if using). Cook for 3 mins more. Then add the lentils and vegetable stock. Season with a pinch of salt and a good grind of black pepper.
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After a few minutes, add the tomato purée, diced tomatoes and Worcestershire sauce. Bring to the boil then reduce the heat and simmer until thickened, about 30 mins, or until lentils are fully cooked.
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Meanwhile, add both types of potato to the boiling water and cook for 15-20 mins. TIP: The potatoes are cooked when you can easily slip a knife through. Once cooked, drain in a colander. Put them back in the pan and add the butter along with a pinch of salt and some black pepper. Mash until smooth.
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Transfer lentil mixture to an ovenproof dish, spread the mash on top and grate over the cheese (if using). Pop on the top shelf of your oven and bake until golden, 15-20 mins.
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Put the broccoli on a baking tray and drizzle over some oil. Season with salt and black pepper. Once the cottage pie has been in your oven for 5 mins, put the broccoli on the middle shelf and roast until the edges are crispy and slightly charred, 10-15 mins.
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Once it's golden brown, serve on plates with a portion of roasted broccoli on the side.
Serve and enjoy!
What did you guys think of this ingredient swap? Do you think you’ll use the recipe matchmaker service at some point? I promise the next SS recipe will be more…seasonal.
Until next time,
Sophie
This looks amazing!! I’m going to try it next week and have bookmarked 🙂
Jenny
Your photography honestly makes me soooooooo hungry!
This looks devine!
Ashleigh x
http://www.thestoryofashleighdavis.com
It looks so yum! I need to experiment more with vegan recipes now that I’ve become fully vegan x
http://www.ofbeautyandnothingness.co.uk
Wow this post made me hungry, this sounds and looks delicious! I love the idea of the Hello Fresh matchmaker too, that’s something I definitely want to try this year 🙂
Kate
Oh this looks and sounds delicious.
I’m always looking for ways to include more meat free meals to my weekly meal planning.
While I’m not vegan or vegetarian, I am trying to cut back on my meat products.
I’ll definitely try and make this. I’m sure the kids will love it.
I always love how you are substituting things to make it work with your dietary needs, I think that’s really great. I know I say that on all of your posts but it’s just so fascinating to me how you are so talented at cooking that you can do that because i’ll be over here freaking out about how to make boxed mac & cheese without milk! LOL! I’ve actually never heard of this recipe so I will have to have a look through the original and see if it’s something my family would enjoy me making! thanks for sharing Sophie! xx
Mich / Simplymich.com
I love the sound of the Recipe Matchmaker, that would be so handy if you just had a few ingredients in the fridge and were looking for meal inspo. It’s a great way to make sure nothing gets wasted and a fab opportunity to experiment with different dishes too. Yay for sweet potatoes! Cottage pie is such a comforting and nutritious meal, and I love that it was the broccoli that gave you the idea for this one. Great post Sophie, thanks for sharing! <3 xx
Bexa | http://www.hellobexa.com
I’ve never really been a fan of Shepherds Pie or Cottage Pie but I think if I swapped the potato for sweet potato and maybe had a meat alternative filling, I would enjoy it more! This looks really delicious and perfect for this time of year, when it’s cold outside!
Jenny
http://www.jennyinneverland.com
Will try to try with this ingredient swap. It looks yummy..
I completely agree that cottage pie is the perfect meal for cold winter months and I absolutely adore cottage pie that’s made with sweet potatoes so I don’t mind that it’s not necessarily their season anymore! Another fab recipe lovely.
Jess //
This looks really nice, I love dinners like this in the winter.
This looks delicious! We are doing veggie/ vegan Monday’s to reduce the amount of meat we eat and this looks lovely!.
http://www.lemonaidlies.co.uk
I’ve been including mushrooms in like everything ever since I did your lentil ragu recipe – how have I been sleeping on mushrooms for this long?! I am loving the sound of this – I’m trying to make more of an effort to not eat meat so often, so your blog is basically where I go for recipes haha this sounds like a perfect winter meal! (hi from 8ºF weather (though now the weather is playing games and it’s now Spring weather!))
I’m saving this and will most likely @ you on twitter as I cook haha! Love the idea of substituting things in a recipe, makes your recipe have a creative twist!
I also love the idea of HelloFresh Recipe Matchmaker where has It been all my life ah! super excited to check out recipes!
Sahara
http://saharas-dreams.blogspot.com
HelloFresh sounds like a great idea, I am always looking for new recipes as I am getting really bored with the foods I currently eat. This cottage pie looks incredibly tasty!
Jess xxx
I’ve never heard of this recipe before nor have I heard of HelloFresh Matchmaker but that sounds (and looks) so good! I love how you know what to swap and how long to cook whatever alternative you’re using, like swapping lentils for beef. I would probably keep it to beef for my meal. Thank you so much for sharing!
Geraldine | https://geraldinetalks.com
This has made me so hungry, it’s only 10am and I could literally sit and eat this right now. Sweet potatoes are life, I’m definitely going to check out the other recipes you’ve posted that include them as well. I’m not veggie or vegan but I’m trying to cut down the amount of meat I consume, most days I either don’t eat any or I only eat it in one meal per day now. The thing is, I don’t really like Quorn mince so this is a great alternative using the lentils etc. rather than a meat substitute x
Alice // http://www.accordingtoalicex.com
I REALLY wish I could get into sweet potato, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve tried it but I just can’t warm to it. I love a good cottage pie and I’m still yet to try lentils, It’s one of my new years resolutions to try more meat alternatives and cut down a lot though and I am actually going to do it this time. I love tenderstem broccoli, too! I’d definitely smother this in gravy, hehe.
Alice Xx
Omg amazing!!!!
I feel so hungry now….this looks gorgeous!! Haven’t had cottage pie in a long time x
This is one of my favourite things to make for supper on a cold day so I loved seeing it on your blog, thanks for sharing
With love, Alisha Valerie x | http://www.alishavalerie.com
With the rain and the cold in Berlin at the minute this is a dish I need for my tummy.
It’s official: I’m trying this tonight!! Never tried anything with Worcestershire sauce before so that will be interesting! Thanks for this and I’ll let you know how it goes! xD
Dee xoxo | TheDeeWhoLived