Lentil Cottage Pie

This is my version of a Lentil Cottage Pie.
It is one of these where I just “wing it” and throw in whatever bits I want to use up so some of the ingredients are optional.

I soaked lentils last night and then boiled them for about 20 mins.

I also soaked the soup mix overnight and boiled it for about 20 mins. You could do these together.

Ingredients

For this dish, I’ve used about 100g dry weight green lentils from Home Bargains.

79p per 500g 100g = 16p

2 Sainsburys Basics stock cubes 8p
1/6 tube tomato puree 6p
About 50g of dried soup mix-cooked 4p
A good splash of Worcs sauce 4p *optional
2 onions from Aldi 12p
About 100g frozen peas 8p
Some water-about 500ml (maybe more)
3 medium potatoes-wash slice,boil and mash-no need to peel 10p
A few teaspoons gravy granules to flavour and thicken 2p
A few spoons of dried mash to thicken the gravy 3p
Salt pepper and a couple of teaspoons sunflower spread to mash into the potato * optional 2p
I did use up a small amount of diced red pepper (you can see it in the photo above and below)

Method

Dice onions and gently cook them in a little oil in a pan until softened.
Add tomato puree,soup mix,lentils,worcs sauce, and mix together.
Add water and stock cubes. I slice up my stock cubes so they dissolve quicker.
Add frozen peas
Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF/gas 4
Cook until lentils and soup mix no longer have a bite to them.
Add salt, pepper, gravy granules, testing the flavour as you go. We all like it a little different.
If you have the flavour to your liking but it needs thickening, add a little potato mash of the dried variety-a little works magic so take it slowly.
Put into a casserole dish and top with mashed potato.
Cook for 20-30 minutes until nicely browned on top.

Total cost: Only 75p

Yes! For a big casserole dish with at least 4 adult portions.
This should serve the 3 of us a portion each for 2 days with veg or baked beans as a side.

Cost per serving based on 6 servings 13p!

What you add to it depends on your budget or what you want to use up.

If you think the potato topping looks funny it is because I mashed unpeeled potatoes.