Vegan Healthy Cottage Pie

Not so quick, not so simple, but DELICIOUS! So had to share with you all and really recommend you make this sometime in the weekend or on your day off! It's the perfect dish for me to eat some vegetables I don't eat that often and it sure fits the Fall and upcoming Winter. Recipe is based on the vegan cottage pie from Kenko Kitchen but I left out some ingredients to make it more affordable!

Duration: about 50 minutes

Amount of servings: 3 persons (6 small ramekins)

The ingredients for the main filling:

• 1 onion
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 tbs olive oil
• 2 carrots
• 1 celery stick
• 1 tin organic diced tomatoes
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 sprig sprig rosemary (If you don't have this substitute with 1 ts dried rosemary)
• 1 sprig fresh thyme (same as for the rosemary)
• 1/2 ts dried marjoram
• 1 tin (310 grams) of lentils
• Salt & Pepper to taste

The ingredients for the mash:

• 1/3 head cauliflower
• 1 (big) sweet potato
• 1 small leek
• 1 garlic clove
• 1 ts dried parsley
• 1 tbs olive oil
• Splash of coconut cream (save the rest in a bag in your freezer if you don't use it in the next two days)
• 1 ts agave syrup
• Salt & Pepper to taste

What you do:

1. Preheat your oven to 180 degrees of Celsius. 
2. Start with your filling. Chop the onion and garlic cloves and sauté in the olive oil. Meanwhile finely chop the carrots and celery. After a couple of minutes add the chopped carrot and celery to the pan and season with salt and pepper. Cook the mixture until the vegetables are tender (test with a fork). Then add the tin of tomatoes, bay lead, lentils and the chopped herbs to the mixture and leaf to simmer for about 10 minutes and everything in warmed through. After 10 minutes make sure to taste your seasoning and add some more salt and/or pepper if needed.
3. When your filling is shimmering, slice the sweet potato (with skin on!) and the cauliflower into smaller pieces and steam the sweet potato for about 6-8 minutes and the cauliflower for 10-12 minutes (both need to be tender, not to soft!).
4. During the steaming of the vegetables, wash and chop the leek and sauté with 1 crushed garlic clove and the dried parsley in a small frying pan until translucent in colour. 
5. Once the leeks are translucent and the cauliflower is steamed put both in a blender or your food processor and pulse until just mashed with a splash of coconut cream. In a seperate bowl mash the sweet potato by hand and then add it to the food processor and pulse the mixture of leek, cauliflower and sweet potato until combined. When the mixture seems to dry just add another splash of coconut cream and season with salt and pepper. MIx in the agave syrup and set aside. 
6. Then first put the filling (lentil-tomato mixture) into 6 small ramekins (or one big pie dish).Top with the mash mixture and put a sprig of fresh thyme on top of each ramekin. 
7. Bake in the oven for about 35 minutes on 180 degrees op Celsius.

Variation tip: After 30 minutes in the oven sprinkle some grated cheese on top of the pies and put back for the last 5 minutes. 

Enjoy!