Vegetarian cottage pie with dauphinoise potato

Lately a lot of my meals have been indianised versions of English meals and that’s because my son is home from University and most of the food cooked is his choice – which is great as I get to try out something new. I often cook cottage pie using Quorn (FYI: Quorn is the brand name for a range of meat-free ingredients and meals sold here in UK) but today I made this cottage pie using Heinz baked beans (yes- the ones you get out of a can), chick peas and mixed vegetables topped with dauphinoise potato (Sound’s posh doesn’t it?) . This is a great dish to cook and keep in the fridge, ready to go in the oven just before dinner time.

Ingredients for 4 servings

1 can of chick peas (the 400 gms of chick peas can when Drained Weighs 240g)
½ can of baked beans (200gms)
2 cup mixed vegetables ( I used carrots, sweet corn, onions, sweet peppers and aubergine)
6-8 medium potatoes
2 fresh tomatoes chopped finely
2 tbls olive oil
1 tsp salt
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp mixed cumin and coriander powder
1 tsp pepper (and more to sprinkle on the potatoes)
2 cups grated cheddar cheese
1 cup double cream
small bunch of fresh coriander and some fresh green chillies (optional) for the topping.

Method

1. Heat the olive oil and stir fry the onions. Drain and wash the chick peas . Once the onions are soft, add the chick peas, baked beans and mixed vegetables – including the tomatoes. Add all the spices – salt, chilli powder, cumin and coriander powder and pepper and allow the mixture to cook until all the vegetables are cooked and the moisture has been absorbed. This could take about 20 minutes.

2. In the meantime, peel the potatoes and par boil them in plenty of water. Once boiled, cut them into thick round slices. Some potatoes cook fast so try and not over cook the potatoes as it’s difficult to slice them if the are too soft. ( If this happens, you can make the potatoes into mash potatoes and use that as a topping).

3. Now add the fresh coriander to the pie filling and spread the mixture in a baking tray.

4. Add a layer of potatoes on top of the pie filling. Sprinkle some pepper on the potatoes and add layer of cheese on the potatoes.

5. Add some double cream on the potatoes and make a second layer of potatoes and finish with a layer of cheese.

6. Sprinkle some fresh coriander and fresh green chillies and cook the cottage pie at 180 degrees Centigrade ( 350 F or Gas mark 4 ) for 20 minutes and 150 degrees (300 F or gas mark 2 ) for 20 minutes.