"5 Roasted Vegetables Deception" Cottage Pie

Hands up if you've ever slaved in the kitchen for hours, trying to come up with new ways to serve vegetables to your family...only to have them eat everything else but the said vegetables, pushing it into a neat little pile on the plate. Yes, that.

I'll be the first to admit that I hate cold vegetables. For years I didn't touch peas, because those little suckers are cold before they even hit your plate. So in a way I can empathise...but not so much when I've spent a long time in the kitchen.

So over the past 6 years (which is coincidentally how long Adam and I have been together), I have come up with many different ways of sneaking vegetables into most of our favourite dishes. Spaghetti bolognaise is now packed with carrots, celery and mushrooms. Mashed potato is now mashed cauliflower. Oven baked chips are now sweet potato oven baked chips. The art of deception - I think I'm pretty damn good at it. And what do I get in return? Empty plates and tummies full of vegetables. Yes, I sleep sound at night, thank you very much.

Cottage pie is such a delicious dish, when made right. I've experimented with my cottage pie recipe so much, topping it with a butternut crust instead of mashed potato. I'd always add the "peas, carrots and corn" to it, but lo and behold, the veggies would sometimes end up on the side of the plate again (Eli Hunter, I'm looking at you). So I've come up with a new way to make cottage pie, and when I served it last night, Adam told me that it's the best cottage pie he has ever had. My work here is done.

"5 Roasted Vegetables Deception" Cottage Pie

Ingredients

*5 carrots, chopped into chunks
About 10 baby marrows, halved
3 giant mushrooms
3 big tomatoes, quartered
2 tablespoons of olive oil
Salt and black pepper

**1 big head of cauliflower
3 tablespoons of butter

2 tablespoons of olive oil
500g beef mince
1 small tin of tomato paste
Mixed herbs
1 tablespoon of crushed garlic
1 small onion, chopped finely
Parmesan cheese (optional)

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius.

2. Place all the vegetables (except for the cauliflower) on a baking tray. Drizzle with the olive oil, season with salt and pepper and roast for 30 minutes.

3. In the meantime, break the cauliflower into chunks and boil until soft.

4. About 10 minutes before your vegetables have to come out the oven, heat the olive oil in a pan and fry the onion and garlic until the onion is soft.

5. Add the mince, mixed herbs and tomato paste. Fry the mince until brown. Remove from the heat.

6. Take the roast vegetables from the oven and place in a food processor. Turn the oven down to 180 degrees Celsius. Puree the vegetables until all the big bits are gone.

7. Return the mince to the stove and add the pureed vegetables. Incorporate well and turn off the heat.

8. Once your cauliflower is soft, drain all the water and puree with a stick blender until smooth, adding the butter and salt.

9. Spoon your mince into a deep oven dish, topping it with the creamy cauliflower.

10. Sprinkle generously with parmesan and bake for 20-30 minutes.

Serve immediately and enjoy!

*You can use just about any vegetables in this recipe. I've roasted broccoli and aubergines before and it worked beautifully as well. Play around!

*You can use half mashed cauliflower and half mashed butternut (mixed together) for the topping if you would like to disguise the taste of the cauliflower a bit more.

You're welcome ;)