vegetable casserole

A warming supper for cold winter days.

Ingredients for 2 people:

2 medium potatoes
1 tablespoon oil
small cup lentils - any sort, soaked for a few hours beforehand
2 medium carrots
2 sticks celery
1 medium onion
 5 or 6 mushrooms
1 pint (500ml) water
1 vegetable stock cube
few squirts soy sauce
1 teaspoon dried herbs, or 1 tablespoon fresh herbs, chopped
(optional) small portion of any other frozen or chopped fresh vegetables as liked
black pepper


Cook the lentils until almost tender - about half an hour for green or brown ones, less for red ones.
Wash and chop the fresh vegetables into bite-sized pieces.
Heat the oil in a large pan and add the chopped onion, potatoes, celery and  carrots, plus any other fresh vegetables. Cook gently, stirring often so it doesn't stick.
Add the water, then the lentils and mushrooms and frozen vegetables, if using, and bring to the boil. Add dried herbs.
Simmer for at least 15 minutes until lentils and vegetables are tender. Add crumbled stock cube towards end of cooking time. Stir well.
At end of cooking time, add soy sauce and any fresh herbs. Check seasoning and add pepper if required.