After a delicious dish to get lots of veggies into your family’s diet? This Hearty Vegetarian Cottage Pie recipe is the perfect healthy, vegetarian option! As the nights get colder, my girls are always asking for warm comfort food and, as they already love my traditional cottage pie, this recipe is the perfect excuse to get creative in the kitchen and add extra veggies into our meals. 

For baby: 6 months+

Leave out salt and adapt the texture of the vegetables by cooking them longer, if needed, to suit your baby’s weaning stage. For information on texture and portioning, sign up to our club to get a FREE portion guide.

Makes: 8 x Adult
Cook time: 50-60 minutes

For the filling:

1 leek, finely chopped
2 onions, finely chopped
2 sticks of celery, finely chopped
2 carrots, finely chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
400g (5 cups) red lentils, rinsed
500ml (2 cups) low salt vegetable stock
200g (2 cups) frozen peas
2 tbsp tomato purée
1 tin chopped tomatoes
Salt* & pepper  

*Omit salt for baby

For the topping:

6 potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
120ml (½ cup) milk
25g (1 fl oz) low salt butter
100g (1 ¼ cups) mature Cheddar, grated

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 180°C
2. Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat and then cook the leek, onion, celery and carrots for about 5-10 minutes until they have softened. 
3. Add the lentils, peas, tomato purée, stock and tin of chopped tomatoes and season with salt and pepper if using. Bring to the boil, stirring constantly to make sure it doesn’t stick to the bottom. Reduce to a simmer and cook for about 10-15 minutes until the lentils are cooked. 
4. Meanwhile, steam the potatoes for 15-20 minutes, until tender. Mash them together with the butter. Then mix in the cheese and milk.
5. Portion the vegetable filling into an ovenproof dish. Spread on the mash.
6. Bake the pie for 25-35 minutes until the top starts to brown and the filling bubbles through at the edges. Leave to stand for 5 minutes before serving.

Top Tip: You can use your food processor to quickly finely chop the leeks, carrots, onions and celery. Make sure to use the pulse button rather than blend.