Lighter Cottage Pie

Easily adaptable to be suitable for vegetarians

Living in the North East has taught me two things. 

1) it's cold as balls. Winter is ALWAYS coming. 

And 2) if you cook a man pie, he is happy for the next 24 hours.

With it being spring/summer I'm not feeling in the mood for pastry and thick gravies so I've been tinkering around finding alternatives. Cottage pie is a firm favourite but is a little stodgy in it's traditional form for warmer weather.. Until now. Enjoy! - Bekki

Ingredients;
500g lean mince (5% fat)
Want to make it veggie instead? Substitute for quorn mince. It works just as well.
1 large carrot
1 red onion
1 x 200g tin of reduced salt & sugar baked beans
100g garden peas
200ml stock (beef or vegetable)
750g sweet potatoes
Salt & pepper to season
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp dried coriander

Equipment;
Potato masher

Method;

• Fill the kettle and bring to the boil. It saves waiting for water to boil in a saucepan.
• Peel and chop the carrot, onion and potatoes. You want the carrots and onion to be similar sizes, fairly chunky so you still have some bite but not so large that they aren't fully cooked at the end.
• Place the carrot and onion into a large pan with a tiny bit of vegetable oil to sweat down. You want the onion to soften and become translucent.
• Add the mince and keep it moving until all of the mince is browned (if using quorn, do not add until the point of adding the stock).
• Add the beans and peas to the pan.
• Make up your 200ml stock using 1/2 a stock cube and 200ml of boiling water. Pour into the pan and stir.
• Add a pinch of salt and pepper and both the ground and dried coriander. Cover the pan and bring up to a simmer whilst the potatoes now cook.
• Use the rest of the water from the kettle to cover the sweet potatoes in a separate pan. Put over a medium heat to bring back up to a boil. They will take anywhere between 12-20 minutes to cook depending on the variety and the size of the chunks of potato.
• Drain the potatoes and mash - they do not need to be perfectly smooth like a traditional mash. I prefer texture when eating sweet potato mash as they can be a little more watery than white potatoes.
• Add the paprika (and a small knob of butter if desired) to the potatoes along with a pinch of salt and pepper.
• Serve immediately. Also great for food preppers - pop into airtight containers and freeze or keep in the fridge and reheat in the microwave when required. Always make sure food is piping hot when reheating and use within a month of freezing).

Verdict;

Hearty but not to heavy. Colourful, flavoursome and with great texture. It's really satisfying without making you feel like you need a nap after eating it which, for me, is a must at this time of year. It's not really a cottage pie, but it's where the inspiration has come from as you can see from the base ingredients. It's just a summery, lighter version!