Beef & Lentil Plate Pie

 

 

Oh My, I am so winning at finding delicious, easy and healthy on the old calorie front recipes at the moment.  I am filled with renewed vigour and enthusiasm for posting these creations, so hopefully I can keep it up.

This is a recipe I purloined from the Good Food Magazine - my favourite, it is from the Hairy Bikers in their new role as dieters.  It is a winner and the potato pastry is utterly revolutionary for me.

The original recipe was base on 4 people do I have reduced to suit two of us.

Minced Beef Plate Pie
Serves 2 Approx 11 Pro Points per serving (440 calories)

125g lean minced beef - yes, really that little
1 onion, sliced
1 carrot, small dice
100g swede, small dice (should be 50g swede and 1 stick celery but I had none)
1/2 can (200g) brown lentils
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried thyme
2 tsp. tomato puree
150ml beef stock
2 tsp, HP sauce - my own addition, because everything is better with a splosh of brown sauce.

140g floury potatoes
20g chilled butter, diced
40g plain flour
1 tbsp skimmed milk
1 beaten egg to glaze

Boil up the potatoes until soft, drain then mash until smooth and leave to cool.
Rub together the butter and flour in a bowl, then add the mash, milk and a pinch of salt and gently blend together into a pastry ball.  Cover with cling film and chill for at lest 30 mins.

Put the mince, onions, carrots & swede in a pan.  Dry fry (or a couple squirts of 1 cal oil) until beef is browned.  Add lentils, herbs, tomato puree, stock and HP.  Bring to the boil, cover and simmer for 20 mins or until veg are soft. Set aside to cool.

Heat oven to 200oc or 180oc fan.
The pastry will be quite delicate, so I got my pie plate and placed it on a sheet of greaseproof paper and cut out a circle to size.  I then gently rolled out the pastry to cover the circle.
Take the pie plate and tip in the filling, wet the edges, then flip the pastry onto the top and peel off the greaseproof.  press the edges together and glaze with the beaten egg.
Bake in the oven for 35-40 mins until golden brown.  Serve with green beans or the like.

Utterly yummy and in no way would you believe how good it was for you, you certainly do not miss a greater amount of beef.  The pastry is fairly thin, but again gives you enough of a pastry taste not to miss a greater amount.  This will definitely be cooked again.