Carrots and onions now slightly soften just a little bit warm.
Next thing I’m going to add is seasonings and for this traditional seasoning is thyme
so I’ve got some beautiful fresh thyme that I’m going to add, if you have dried definitely
fine as well.
I just happen to be lucky enough to live somewhere where we have a garden and thyme grows in
the winter.
So there we go.
Just stir that thyme through the carrots.
I’ll add a bit of black pepper and we add the seasonings now so that they infuse to
the oil and get carried through the dish rather than just being isolated on their own and
getting diluted in water or what we’re gonna add next is a little bit of wine.
And red wine is the best to use here, I don’t usually keep red wine on hand so I used some
white tonight but if you have red or if you want to get some red definitely a better flavor
for the lentils.
Could also add a bit of red wine vinegar although it’s a different flavor, wouldn’t really
be the same but if you’re in a pinch you could use a bit of that.
Mix it with some water so that it’s not quite as strong.
Ok!
So you get the heat off on that now and we’re gonna do next is mix the salt together with
the lentils and finish it off get it ready top it with the potatoes for the oven which
is now preheated so let’s get going on that.
So better lentils hanging out here in the pie dish and yes it’s called shepherd’s
pie so traditionally you do it in a pie dish.
It also works quite well in like a brownie dish.
Any kind of baking casserole type dish really is fine.
Work with what you got.
But I definitely won’t go out and buy a pie dish just for this purpose.
Ok, so get all those vegetables in with the lentils, mix them through and what we’re
gonna do to make this a little bit thicker is add a bit of flour and water.
Now this is not necessary, it just makes it more of like a pie kind of texture, more similar
like to the shepherd’s pie and I’m sorry!
Mix the flour in here first, get it coated through there.
You can use any type of flour here, whole wheat is probably the easiest but if you are
allergic to wheat or have gluten allergies or something like that.
You can definitely use whatever type of flour you prefer.
Brown rice is probably my flour of choice for most things very fine texture but it’s
a whole grain flour.
Ok, and then just pour a bit of water in here to make sure things are moisten that was probably
only half a cup of that.
Remember you have some moisture from the wine as well so don’t get things get too wet.
You just want them wet enough that it’s not gonna dry out.
Ok, you need to add some salt at this point because the lentils do not have any salt in
them.
And so the salt is going to finish off the flavors in the lentils otherwise the thyme
will not flavor the lentils.
And the lentils on their own really don’t have very much flavor.
I’m gonna add a bit more ground pepper here as well.
I just like that.
Ok, so get that salt mix all the way through into the lentils and then just flatten this
out somewhat because we’re going to top it with our beautiful mashed potatoes.
See you don’t need to get too crazy with the potatoes here just you know clump them
up in balls and then spread them out so that there aren’t too many bits that are sticking
up.
Any texture in the top of the potatoes is going to make by texture I mean shape is going
to make it a bit of a different texture in your mouth so if you have little mounts its
gonna make little crispy bits on the top which is kinda nice and this is why I don’t make
too too creamy mashed potatoes for this dish because I like to have a little bit of texture
in the top there.
Ok!
So this is ready to go!
See how easy to put this together just it pop to the oven and I’ve got it 350F, I’m
gonna leave it in there for 20-30 minutes just take a peek at 20 minutes and make sure
that it’s not burning on top.
The potatoes should turn a little bit golden on top and that’s what your looking for.
Alright!
Check out that pie!
I left this one in at around 30 minutes.
You can see the very peaks of the potatoes are starting to get a little bit brown there
that’s what I was waiting for and if we scoop a little bit of this guy here, no need
for knives, who needs knives?
Well maybe I need to do this.
Get it on the plate and see the lentils underneath, beautifully stewed in their own juices, not
great for legumes but lentils I think love it because they look very happy down there.
So enjoy this, great serve with a salad or some steamed green vegetables and basically
you just enjoy it because it’s pretty delicious.