Recipe: Carnival Pie
Carnival Pie
A SUPER-FILLING VEGETABLE PARTY FOR YOUR TASTE BUDS
Equipment
- Large frypan with lid
- Grater
- Masher
- Spatula
- Oven dish
Ingredients
Pie top
- ½ head cauliflower
- 4 medium potatoes
- 1 orange kumera
- Small tub sour cream or a large knob of butter and a good splash of milk
- ½ cup grated cheese
- Extra grated cheese to top optional
- Handful of fresh chives & parsley optional
- Salt & pepper to season
Filling
- ½ head cauliflower
- 4 medium potatoes
- 1 orange kumara
- Small tub sour cream or a large knob of butter and a good splash of milk
- ½ cup grated cheese
- Extra grated cheese to top optional
- Handful of fresh chives & parsley optional
- Salt & pepper to season
- 1 onion
- 1 carrot
- 1 courgette
- 2 sticks celery
- 2 cans brown lentils
- 1 can chopped tomatoes
- 1 can water
- 2 cloves garlic/ 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tbsp smoked paprika
- 1 tsp oregano
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 vegetable stock cube
- 1 tsp salt
- Frozen veg/ capsicum/ spinach optional
- A splash of oil for frying.
- Salt & pepper to season
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 180C.
For the mash
- Bring a pot of salted water to the boil.
- Cut the cauliflower into florets. Peel and chop the potatoes and kumera into same size cubes.
- Place the veg into the boiling water, reduce heat, and cook for about 15 mins till tender. Remove from the heat, drain. Add cream, cheese and herbs. Mash till combined and season with salt and pepper to taste. Put the lid back on and put to one side.
For the filling
- Finely chop onion and mince garlic.
- If using garlic powder add this when you do the other herbs and spices.
- Peel carrot and finely grate along with courgette and celery (discard celery fibres).
- Add a splash of oil to a large fry pan. Cook onions on a medium heat for 5mins till starting to change colour. Add in carrot, courgette, celery, herbs, spices, salt and a splash of water. Give it a good stir then put the lid on and cook down for another 5 or so minutes stirring occasionally. This will add a sweetness to the dish and the vegetables will ‘disappear’ – perfect for picky eaters and the vegetable cautious.
- Rinse and drain lentils. Add to fry pan with tomatoes, water, stock cube and any other vegetables if adding extra. Give everything a good stir, put the lid on and reduce to a simmer. Cook for another 10-15mins till most of the liquid is gone and the veg is all cooked down. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Bring it together
- Make the pie by pouring the contents of the fry pan into an oven dish. Carefully spoon on the mash and smooth out with a spatula.
- Sprinkle with cheese and place in pre-heated oven for about 20mins till cheese is melted.
- Cool pie slightly before serving.
Notes
- For a vegan version, Carnival Pie can be made without any of the cheese or sour cream, or butter and milk. Simply cook the cauli, kumera and potato in vegetable stock and use extra virgin olive oil and/or coconut cream in the mash. This is what I did the first time I made it and tastes great. The coconut makes me think of Jamaica for some reason and it’s partly why I called it Carnival Pie!
- I’ve added chili flakes to spice it up – I didn’t overdo it, so my kids still ate it.
- If you can’t be bothered to wait for the oven, or you’re in a rush, put the pie under the grill to brown it off.
- I use this pie to get rid of spinach, cabbage or packets of coleslaw lingering in the fridge. I just add it all to the grated veg at the start. The exception is spinach (baby or otherwise), I add this at step 4 of the filling. Same for frozen veg and capsicum.