A hearty wholesome winters delight
I started my blogging journey with great pomp and flair. Trying to take the perfect photo, making sure I use the high appeal hashtags to get lots of likes and comments, checking my stats every few hours to see how it was all tracking, etc. As the months went by this passion started turning into bit of an obsession. The pursuit of perfection got even more intense. On the flip side the number of likes and comments took a downward turn. The more I watched my posts being less liked, the lesser I was inclined to publish new content.
Life also got busier, I went from being a mother of one to a mother of two. While parenthood is the most beautiful thing in the world, the constant demands it has of you means somewhere, something has to give. For me it was blogging. Days turned into weeks and weeks to months before I knew it, it was over six months since my last post.
Why am I telling you this? Simply because it dawned on me one late evening as I was feeding my newborn and watching my toddler sleep. You must do all that it takes to keep doing things that make you happy and pursue happiness not perfection. Life is too short to care about the camera angle or the perfect photo or about the number of likes and comments on your social media. What matters is what makes you happy! After all life is a pursuit of happiness. So is this recipe!!!
Don’t get deterred by the list of ingredients. You can use frozen or fresh vegetables, basically whatever you have in the fridge. Enjoy this hearty, wholesome winters delight that may not be a perfect picture but it is a perfect meal. Lip smackingly delicious in every way.
Ingredients: Cooking time: 45 minutes
Serves: 4
- Two tins of canned brown lentils
- One tin of four bean mix
- One leek, finely chopped
- One small onion, finely chopped
- Four to five pods of garlic
- One zucchini, chopped
- Two parsnips, chopped
- Half a bunch of spinach
- 1.5 cups of frozen vegetable mix of peas, corn and carrots
- 1.5 teaspoon of garam masala
- Half a teaspoon of dried chilli flakes
- 1.5 teaspoon of dried basil
- 250 gms of grated cheddar
- 125 gms of grated Parmesan
- Salt to season
- Black pepper to season
- Three tablespoons of olive oil
- Two tablespoons of butter
For Mash Potatoes
- Six to eight medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
- 300ml of milk
- Two tablespoons of butter
- One cup of grated cheddar
Heat butter and two tablespoons of olive oil in a heavy bottom saucepan. Add garlic, leek and onion. Cook until leek is soft and lightly caramelised.
Add all the vegetables, lentils, beans and spices. Mix well. Season with salt and add a cup of water. Cover the pan and let the lentils and vegetables simmer on a low heat for 15 minutes.
To make mash potatoes, boil potatoes until extremely soft. Drain water and add milk, butter and cheese. Mash the potatoes until smooth.
To assemble the pie in a baking dish add the lentils and vegetables at the bottom. Top this with a layer of mash potatoes. Add grated cheddar and Parmesan on top. Drizzle remaining olive oil on the potatoes ( this will prevent them from drying in the oven.
Place the bake dish under a grill and grill until cheese is caramelised. Your Shepherds pie is ready to serve.
Serve hot along with a simple green side salad and let this hearty winter delight fill your belly and soul with warmth.
