Ingredients
- ½ a leek
- 1 stick of celery
- 1 red onion
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1 chilli
- ½ cup lentils
- ½ cup Merchant Gourmet Whole Chestnuts
- 4 asparagus stalks/vegetable of choice
- 1 medium carrot
- 1 tsp rosemary
- 1 tbsp tomato purée
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 stock cube
- ½ litre water
- 1 tin of tomatoes
- 1 tsp paprika
- ½ tbsp miso
- 1 pinch baking powder
- 2 red rooster potatoes
- 4 cloves garlic
- 2 sprigs of thyme
- 1/2 cup plant based cheese
- 125ml plant based cream
- ½ cup water
- ½ cup milk
- 2 bay leaves
Potatoes:
Instructions
- Start by thinly slicing the peeled potatoes and putting them in a bowl of cold water to soak - this will get them to be nice and crispy.
- Add your finely chopped onions, garlic, chilli, celery and leeks to your slow cooker. Next add your carrots (also chopped into small pieces), along with the washed and drained lentils, tinned tomatoes, tomato puree, dried rosemary, soy sauce, miso paste and paprika.
- Make up ½ a litre of stock and add it to the slow cooker.
- Stir well and slow cook for about 3 hours until the carrots are soft and all the flavours have come together nicely. Add the asparagus and roughly chopped chestnuts and cook for a further 10 minutes. You can add a pinch of baking soda at this point to neutralise the acidity from the tomatoes. Keep the lid of the slow cooker off if you prefer a thicker casserole.
- Get the potatoes ready by adding a little lump of butter to a hot pan and fry the minced garlic. You can now add the thyme (whole), cream, water, milk, cheese and bay leaves. Allow to cook off for about 10 minutes on medium and then add your potatoes. Cook this down but don’t allow the potatoes to become too soft as it will start falling apart and be difficult to transfer to the casserole dish.
- Layer the potatoes on top of the casserole (in an oven proof dish) and top with some more cheese if you like. Pop into the oven for about 15-20 minutes or until the cheese has melted and become nice and golden.
- Sprinkle over some thyme and enjoy with a hunk of crusty bread!
Good to know!
You can also make this in a stovetop pan which would definitely be quicker but the slow cooker option is great if you want to get dinner ready while working from home as it's so easy to throw together!
