RED DRAGON PIE

Image by digitaldefection via Flickr

This is a recipe I invented when my family were young and both time and money were tight. It is satisfying and filling, can be made with left overs, it saves and freezes very well.

INGREDIENTS

2 large onions

tblsp oil

1 tin chopped tomatoes

lentils

1 tin baked beans

paprika

turmeric

basil

garlic to your taste

125mls stock of your choice

mashed potatoes

DIRECTIONS

Add oil to frying pan on a low heat, and crushed garlic, to your taste, half tsp paprika and half a tsp turmeric, stir well and sweat on very low heat. This infuses the spices through the oil, experiment with your favourite spices.

Chop onions finely and add to frying pan, cook slowly for 5 mins.

Add lentils and stock then cook for 10 mins on slow heat

Add tomatoes and beans, add chopped basil and stir well.

Pour the mixture into a dish and cover with mashed potato. You can use fresh or instant as you choose. I always cook extra mash when I am making a meal to use in other potato dishes.

You can add several different topping, cheese, crisps, crisps and cheese, toasted bacon crumbs or just leave it plain.

Put into a medium hot oven and bake until golden brown about 15 to 20 mins depending upon your oven.

If you want to freeze this dish for later use do so before you add topping, when reheating you can heat from frozen for 45min on low heat and a further 15 on medium heat to brown top. Or take out of freezer night before and cook for 30min in a medium oven.

Alternatively you can cook in micro-wave from frozen and brown top either in grill or oven if desired