Whenever I tell any close friends or family in the UK that I’m craving a nice vegie hot pot/soup they think I’m mad! I know we are lucky with the hot weather here in Australia but sometimes it does get cold and for some reason I feel the cold here more than I do at home!

Anyway, this was a recipe I stole from a beloved work colleague and adapted it to suit whatever I had in my fridge. A sweet potato, lentil shepherds pie.

Serves 4

You will need:

2 x cloves garlic, finely diced

2 x red onion, sliced and diced

1 x celery stick, sliced

250 g button mushrooms, sliced

2 x carrots, peeled and sliced

200g frozen peas

(plus any other vegies you’d like to add: could include, peas, broccoli, cauliflower etc)

2 x sweet potato, peeled and diced

400g lentils (cooked)

350ml Vegetable stock

A few sprigs of thyme

Method:

• Steam the sweet potato for at least 20 mins. Check the consistency. If your fork goes straight through it is cooked if not keep on steaming until this consistency is reached.
• Meanwhile, cook off the garlic and onion in a pan, add the mushrooms, carrot, celery and any other vegetable you’d like to seal/sweat (e.g celery/leeks etc.)
• Add the vegetable stock and lentils to the pan and then add then add the vegetables you’d like to boil in the juices (like broccoli and cauliflower) leave to simmer.
• Add in the peas at the last moment.
• Once the sweet potato is cooked, transfer to a dish and mash with some thyme, salt and pepper and Avocado oil.
• Transfer the lentil and vegetable mix to a baking dish.
• Top with the Sweet potato and thyme mash.
• Bake in the oven at 180 degrees until bubbling at the sides.
• Sprinkle with fresh thyme

** I served mine with fresh crunchy spinach leaves but it would work well with any fresh salad.