SWEET POTATO DHAL PIE

PREP TIME: 15 MINS
SERVES: 6-8 PEOPLE

INGREDIENTS:
•​​ 4 tbsp vegan margarine
•​​ 2 onion
•​​ 4 garlic cloves
•​​ Thumb of fresh ginger (30g / 1oz)
•​​ 2 red chillies
•​​ 1 tbsp ground cumin
•​​ 2 tsp garam masala
•​​ 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
•​​ Salt and pepper
•​​ 1 courgette
•​​ 2 medium carrots
•​​ 300g / 10.5oz green or brown lentils, soaked
•​​ 1 x 400g / 14.1oz tin of tomatoes
•​​ 500ml / 17oz vegetable stock
•​​ 1.3kg / 2.9lb sweet potato
•​​ Fresh coriander, to serve

METHOD:
1.
Peel and dice the onion. Add 2 tbsp of vegan margarine to a pot over a medium heat. As soon as the margarine has melted, add the onion and fry for 8 minutes, stirring occasionally.

2.
Meanwhile peel and dice the garlic and ginger. Dice the chilli, discarding the seeds. Then add the garlic, ginger, chilli, ground cumin, garam masala, ground cinnamon and pinches of salt and pepper to the pot. Fry for 3 minutes.

3.
Roughly chop the courgette and carrots into small pieces, then add them to the pot and fry for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

4.
Rinse the lentils, then add them to the pot along with the tinned tomatoes, vegetable stock and top up with 250ml (1 cup) of hot water. Stir, bring to a boil, then lower and simmer for 40 minutes until the lentils are soft.

5.
Meanwhile peel and slice the sweet potato into 3cm (1inch) pieces. Add them to a steaming basket and steam for 20-30 minutes or until completely soft. Alternatively boil until completely soft. Then transfer the sweet potato to a mixing bowl, season with pinches of salt and pepper and add 2 tbsp of vegan margarine. Mash until completely smooth, then leave to one side until the dhal is ready.

6.
Preheat the oven to 180°C / 356°F fan-assisted.

7.
When the dhal is ready, transfer it to an oven dish approx. 32cm x 25cm (13” x 10”) in size. Level the top, then spoon over the mashed sweet potato and level it out. Then use a fork to score across the sweet potato.

8.
Transfer to the oven for 20 minutes, then leave it to sit for 10 minutes before serving with a sprinkle of fresh coriander and your favourite veggies.

Can you tell us a bit about you and where your love for vegan food began?
Hello! We're Ben and Roxy, otherwise known as SO VEGAN. Our journey with vegan food started around 5 years ago. We found ourselves reading lots of articles and watching countless documentaries (Cowspiracy, anyone?) about the benefits of a vegan diet - and we realised how changing the food on our plates can have a profound impact on the planet. Shortly after switching to a vegan diet, we launched our recipe channel SO VEGAN because we wanted to share our newfound passion with as many people as we could. Fast-forward to today and we have over 1.5 million followers worldwide and we are very proud to say we've released our second cookbook One Pot Vegan.

What can we expect from your new cookbook, One Pot Vegan?
Lots of seriously tasty food! One Pot Vegan is the next step in our mission to make it easy for everyone to eat more plants. You can expect 80 wonderfully delicious, quick and easy recipes, all of which use only one pot, one pan or one tray. We're talking about big flavours and fuss-free meals which you can leave to cook on the hob or in the oven while you relax with your feet up. Oh, and you can expect less washing up, too! The recipes are our most innovative and original yet and you've probably never seen the likes of them before, such as our 'Chicken' Supreme (don't fret, it's 100% vegan) or our Sweet & Sour Jackfruit, which we cook all in one-tray.

You use Falcon enamelware within One Pot Vegan. What’s your favourite product from our ranges and what do you use it for?
We're big fans of Falcon. In fact, we love Falcon so much that we even decided to feature a Falcon tray on the cover of One Pot Vegan! The entire range is a wonderfully smart style and it's a joy to work with when we style our food. From a practical point of view, the bake set offers fantastic options in the kitchen and we use it regularly to cook our one-tray wonders or veggie pies.

You use our products specifically within your sweet potato dhal pie which sounds delicious- can you tell us about the dish?
Ahh, our sweet potato dhal pie! This is one of our most popular recipes this year. We're slightly obsessed with fusion food and we're always thinking of ways we can combine traditional recipes. For this recipe, we create a fragrant lentil and vegetable curry, which we then top with a creamy sweet potato mash. It's filling, nutritious and it's outrageously delicious! But the best thing is it's also super easy and you'll easily find all the ingredients in your local supermarket.

Is there anyone in the industry (or outside) you'd like to shoutout about in your local area at the moment? Anywhere you source ingredients, any particular restaurants and/or cafes doing interesting things etc?
Absolutely! Firstly we'd like to give a humungous shoutout to Made In Hackney, a charity which teaches the local community to cook delicious and wholesome plant-based food. We're proud to say we've been ambassadors of Made In Hackney for a few years now and we honestly can't sing their praises enough. They do such important work supporting local families and vulnerable people in the community, and recently they've been providing free meals during the pandemic to people who need it most. We'd also love to tell you all about one of our favourite local restaurants, Cafe Van Gogh. It's a non-profit vegan restaurant based in Brixton and - as well as supporting local charities - they serve up delicious and comforting food like lasagne and burgers.

How have you been keeping during this time? Do you have any tips as we all become accustomed to this 'new normal'?
To be honest, I think we've been very lucky. We've been running SO VEGAN from our home in Camberwell for the past few years so the transition into lockdown wasn't a huge shock. Nevertheless, we've made an effort to keep physically and mentally active - whether it's a jog through our local park, walking our puppy Bento or yoga indoors - and this has really helped to break up the monotony of spending so much time indoors.

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