Lentil and Sweet Potato Shepherd's Pie

Here’s some more comfort food that is nutritious as well as hearty. I love the sweet potato topping on this, it’s perfect with the earthy lentil and vegetable mixture underneath it. I like to use the French puy lentils because they hold their shape well, and look great in dishes. If you don’t fancy goat cheese, leave it out and just add more parmesan. But I urge you to try it – the combination of goat cheese and sweet potato is heavenly.

This will be enough for a medium sized baking dish (roughly 25 x 20cm) and about 4 serves.

Oh, and give yourself a good 2 hours to make this.

For the topping:

• 1 large sweet potato, peeled and sliced into thick rounds
• 2 tablespoons soft goat cheese
• 1/2 400g tin white beans
• butter
• parmesan cheese

For the bottom:

• 2 cups French (puy) lentils – the little black ones
• 1 large onion, diced
• 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon dried sage, or a small handful of fresh sage leaves
• 1 fresh bay leaf
• 1 carrot, diced,
• 1 celery stalk, diced
• 1 and a half x 400g tins organic chopped tomatoes
• 1/2 cup red wine
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• handful of chopped fresh parsley

Put the lentils in a pot of cold water, bring to the boil, and gently simmer for half an hour.

Steam the sweet potato until soft and mash until smooth with the goat cheese, beans and some butter. Set aside.

Heat the oven to 180c

Saute the onion for about five minutes until soft. Add the garlic and stir. Add the sage, carrots, celery, and bay leaf, and saute for about 5 minutes until the vegetables are soft. Add the tomato paste, stir to coat, and cook for a minute. Add the red wine, and reduce it down. Tip in the drained lentils, add the tomatoes and parsley and a little water, about a third of a cup. Simmer for 30 minutes.

Tip the lentil mixture into the baking dish and spread with the sweet potato. Top with some more butter, just dabbed about here and there, and some grated parmesan cheese. Bake for 30 minutes.

Serve with some green vegetables, or a green salad.

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