While Heston Blumenthal fannys about trying to make a bacon flavoured stegosaurus out of yogurt and breadsticks the rest of us have more basic food based challenges.
Like feeding toddlers – or even harder – getting my Dad to eat a vegetarian dish without him making a joke about it lacking a bit of sausage. ( I’d take the bacon dinosaur over either of these anyday)
I was vegetarian for 19 years and this is one of the few dishes my Dad would happily eat.
So if you’re looking for a tasty vegetarian dish that will stop a gruff 65 year old Yorkshireman from making crap jokes this is the pie for you.
You will need:
2/3 biggish sweet potatoes – Is that a kilo? a pound? – bugger I’m shit at weights and measures.
Knob of butter – I googled ‘How big is a knob?’ and was actually sadly disappointed with the results.
2/3 spring onions – If you’ve got them, if not, no biggie.
Quorn Mince – a packet
1 tin tomatoes
Splash olive oil
2 cloves of garlic – I forgot them, no one died/ complained/cared less.
2 carrots
2 sticks of celery
2 medium onions
1 yellow pepper – basically you could chuck in whatever’s in that drawer in the fridge. You know the one where vegetables go to die.
1 teaspoon English mustard
1 tablespoon Marmite
2 tablespoons Kecap Manis – fancy ingredient alert*
Kecap Manis is my secret ingredient. It’s a Malaysian sweet soy sauce and I buy it at the Chinese supermarket. It adds a nice dark caramel colour and it isn’t too salty.
If you think Kecap Manis is a weird ingredient I once read a recipe that used ‘leftover wine’ I have searched high and low for this but I’m buggered if I can find it in the shops near me.
What to do:
Chop up the veg and garlic and fry until soft – about the length of 2 episodes of Peppa Pig is fine.
While the veg is sweating (really? surely there’s a more pretty culinary term for this) peel and chop your sweet potatoes.
Add the sweet potatoes to water and cook til soft – about 12 minutes which is 3 Peppa Pigs in our house.
Before the veg burns and you start swearing add your Quorn mince.
Chuck in the tomatoes, mustard, Marmite and Kecap Manis.
Add a bit of water if it needs it.
Leave for another 2 Peppa Pigs until it looks like the filling of a pie.
Mash your sweet potato topping with butter then add chopped spring onions.
Slap it in a pie dish and cook in the oven for 35 minutes until golden brown.
My pie managed about 20 minutes before I gave into the cries of ‘Is it ready yet?’ hence the complete lack of crispy top in the picture.
Let me know if you have a go at making any of my recipes or a bacon flavoured yogurt stegosaurus.
What pray tell is quorn meal? Any recipes with eggs, my new hens are laying up a storm? Thanks! Jane
Love the fact that you’ use Peppa Pig as a gauge of passing time – I do actually think like this now – you now, how many Granny Murray’s will it take for me to sneak a quick shower, etc…
I’ve never used quorn mince, but if a sworn meat-eater accepts it then who am I to argue, sounds like this one may be worth a try 😉
#Recipeoftheweek
I was addicted to Kecap Manis last year. You’ve made me desperate to go out and buy some more. Thanks for linking up to #recipeoftheweek – sorry I’m a bit late over! Have Pinned this post and scheduled in a tweet. New linky just went live for this week 🙂 x
Best-written recipe EVER! Can you just forgo sleep (sleep! who needs it!) and write a recipe book instead? Please? Pretty please?
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