Veggie Irish Stew Pie

This is ultimate comfort food, and the perfect dish for a family feast. Our veggie version of the classic Irish stew is hearty with beans and lentils. Chunks of sweet root veg and meaty mushrooms simmer in a broth of bouillon, dried mushrooms and bay leaves. We’ve taken the potatoes out of the stew and put them on top in the form of colcannon. This pie is so so delicious, packed with healthy veg and heaps of flavour, you’ll be coming back to this again and again and again.

Liz x

Ingredients (serves 6)

For the stew:

• 2 tbsp vegetable bouillon powder
• 1 tsp dried mushrooms 
• 3 bay leaves
• 1 liter just-boiled water 
• a little oil or butter for sautéing 
• 2 onions, roughly diced
• 3 carrots, cut into chunks
• 3 celery sticks, sliced
• a couple of parsnips or a 1/4 of a celeriac, cut into bite sized chunks
• 200g chestnut mushrooms, halved
• salt & pepper to taste
• 1 tin cooked lentils, drained
• 1 tin cooked beans, drained
• 3 tbsp cornstarch, mixed with enough cold water to make a slurry

For the colcannon:

• 10 or so potatoes, boiled
• 150g kale, thinly sliced
• 3 scallions, thinly sliced
• butter, salt & pepper to taste 

Method

1. Gather and prepare the vegetables, get the potatoes into salted water to boil and turn the oven on to 200C to warm up. Pop the kettle on.
2. Pour a liter of boiling water into a jug with the bouillon powder, dried mushrooms and bay leaves. Stir well, this is your broth.
3. Then, in an oven and hob safe pot, sauté the chopped onion, carrot, celery, mushrooms and parsnips/celeriac with the oil and a little salt and pepper. Stir over a medium-high heat for around 7 minutes or until the vegetables take on some colour and start to soften and reduce. Now add the broth, beans and lentils to the pot and simmer the stew for around 10 minutes.
4. Meanwhile make the colcannon. Once the potatoes are boiled, tip the sliced kale into the pot and let it boil for just a minute. Drain and mash the potatoes and kale together with plenty of butter. Stir in the scallions and season to taste with salt and pepper.
5. The stew should be ready, now it will just need thickening. Pour the cornstarch slurry into the stew and stir over the heat until the stew has thickened up. Then top with the colcannon and run a fork over the top to even it out and rough it up.
6. Bake it a hot oven until the top has browned and crisped up a little and the stew is bubbling. This should take around 15-20 minutes if you get it in the oven whilst still hot. Enjoy!