Hugh's Squash and Lentil Pasties

By Chris

Main Ingredients:

• Brown lentils
• Butternut squash
• Shortcrust pastry
• Onions, carrots and celery
• Mustard, white wine and balsamic vinegar

Having had a not-completely-disastrous run-in with baking and pastry a fortnight ago, I decided to stretch my new-found skills even further this week. Hugh's recipe sounded pretty interesting and we still had a kilo of squash left over from last week's veggie feast, so this seemed like the ideal recipe.

First one onion, one carrot and one celery stick were fried in olive oil, then simmered in white wine. Then the (rather unappetising-looking) brown tinned lentils were added along with bay, thyme and half a pint of vegetable stock and simmered for 10 mins. I then hacked away at the squash until we had some nice cube-shaped chunks, which were chucked in and cooked for a further 20 minutes.

The resulting mixture was rather watery, so I set about it with a potato masher to help the vegetables soak up some of the juices. Finally, two teaspoons of English mustard and the same of Balsamic vinegar were added to give it a kick.

Hugh says to make your own puff pastry (pah!), but I went with store-bought shortcrust, thinking it would be sturdier and less likely to leak. The giant, slightly soggy contraptions were then baked at 190 degrees for 25 minutes and by some miracle, they came out brown and firm.

Served with roasted squash (as there was still 750g left!) and buttery leeks and cabbage, this was probably one of the healthiest meals we've had yet, and dead cheap at just 98p per head.

Best for... Hearty winter fare or, if you're feeling lazy, a killer veggie shepherd's pie.

Taken from... Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall - River Cottage Every Day

Helen says... So that's what lentils are! Pretty substantial and appetizing, would be great with cheesy mash too.