My-oh-my, Shepherdless Pie.

This is a bit of a take on a fairly ancient recipe, foolishly however, I do not have a photo of the end result as it got eaten pretty prompty.  And mostly, in my gluttony, I just forgot.

I love this recipe far more than all the meaty versions I have tried, it is heart warming and filling but without feeling greasy and heavy.  I started to write up the recipe I supposedly used (from The Bean Book by Rose Elliot - 1985!) but realised I have made it so many times it has evolved into its own new creation.  So here is my version:

What you need:

350g black-eyed beans (or if you seem to have misplaced them somewhere in the cupboard, a tin of Canellini beans seems to work just as well)

1 large onion (or if when you chop into the onion, it has gone a bit weird, 2 leeks)

1-2 cloves of garlic

Roughly 50-100g chopped mushrooms, depending on how much you like mushrooms (I like them a lot, so use handfuls of the beauties)

1 tin of chopped tomatoes

1 tbsp tomato puree

1 tbsp parsley

1 tsp mixed herbs or thyme or rosemary, whatever you have

salt and pepper

700g creamy mashed spuds

Grated cheese to go on top

The joy of a recipe like this, a bit like stew, is that you can kinda bung in anything else you need to use up.  So I added:

1 slightly old, finely chopped, carrot.

So, if you are using dried beans, you need to soak them a while first, if your lazy and using a tin, no worries!

First fry the onions (or leeks) and the garlic in olive oil for a few minutes, then when soft and sizzly chuck in the mushrooms.  After another 5ish minutes add the tomatoes and the tomato puree, the beans, the parsley and the herbage and cook for 10 minutes over a gentle heat.  Season it as you so desire. 

Now, if this is not an oven proof dish, transfer it quickly to one that is, cover it with the mashed potato, grate as much cheese as you feel you can get away with, then add a little more cheese and cook it in the oven for 35-40mins at 200C.

Smother in gravy and eat with Purple Sprouting Broccoli or some other seasonal green.  Yum!