This is the cottage pie I brought to the Iyengar center potluck on May 10 – I wanted to make samosas but there’s no way I was going to that kind of work. And honestly just something I made because I needed the kitchen to be a soft place for a while. The base is red lentils and beets with garam masala, cumin, and ginger; the top is golden potatoes mashed with turmeric and coconut oil.
If you had the slice with sweet potato mash and cheese on top, that was the non-vegan corner – I kept it separate because I’d put the lid to my peanut butter clean side down on the same cutting board I put the sweet potatoes on when I got them out of the Instant Pot. There went the plan for an attractive mix of both colors on top! Didn’t want to risk it so I made sure to keep them away from everything else, and took the opportunity to load that one up with butter, cheese, and buttermilk.
Everything in this is flexible – it’s a “what was in the fridge,(and spilling out of totes all over my table) and needed love” kind of bake.
🌶️ If you go “wow that’s a lot of spices” keep in mind that today I made enough food to feed like 20 people, you can absolutely scale this down.
🍲 Ingredients
🔻 Root Layers
Golden Potato Mash
- ~ 1 kg Potatoes (choose a golden or creamy variety – my ones had blue skins!)
- ~ 1 T Salt
- ~ 1 t Turmeric (powdered)
- ~ 2 T Garam masala
- ~ 1 T Cumin (whole)
- ~ 2 T Olive oil
- ~ 3 T Coconut oil
Sweet Potato Mash
- ~1 kg Sweet potatoes
- ~ 1 T Salt
- ~ 1 t Paprika (not smoked)
- ~ 1 t Powdered garlic
- ~ 1 t Powdered onion
- ~ 1 t Cinnamon (powdered)
- ~ 1 T Garam masala
- ~ 1 T Cumin (whole)
- ~ 3 T Butter (or vegan butter)
- ~ 3 T Buttermilk (or plant milk)
Macerated Beets
- ~ 1 kg beets
- ~ 1 T Salt
- ~ 1 T Paprika (sweet or smoked)
- ~ 1 t Powdered garlic
- ~ 1 T Garam masala
- ~ 1 T Cumin (whole)
- ~ 3 T Olive oil
- ~ 3 T Coconut oil
🔻 Filling
- ~ 200g Red lentils, cooked (lazy mode: in reserved potato water)
- ~ 100g Frozen peas
- ~ 400g Roasted carrots
- ~ 300g Chopped onions
- ~ 100g Mushrooms
- ~ 10g Fresh ginger (chopped fine)
- ~ 40g apple cider vinegar
- ~ 80g apple cider
- ~ 1 t Salt
- Optional: shredded cheese for topping (non-vegan)
🍳 Instructions
- Prep your root veg:
- Boil, roast, or steam potatoes, sweet potatoes, and beets. This can be done separately or you can do what I did and push the Instant Pot to the limit of what is reasonable and put them all in at once. Pressure cook for 15 minutes on High and wait for the pot to naturally release.
- You can just use two wooden spoons to pull the veg out. When all the veg are out the water, you can just pour the lentils in and set the pressure cooker on High for 1 minute to cook the lentils while you mash!
- Season each as described and mash — a stand mixer works great here. Make sure to start by quickly flipping on and off “1” or break up the potatoes a bit with a spoon – and then for longer periods of mashing moving up to 2 or 3 will avoid burning out the motor on KitchenAid stand mixers.
- Make the filling:
- Sauté chopped onions, mushrooms, and fresh ginger until verry brown. If they start to burn and stick, that’s what I’m talking about. Deglaze with apple cider and apple cider vinegar.
- Dump into a very large bowl and stir in drained, cooked red lentils and seasoned beets to make a hearty, flavor-rich base.
- Add the veggie middle:
- Layer roasted carrots and peas on top of the beet-lentil mixture. Sprinkle with garlic powder.
- Top with mash:
- Spoon the mashed potatoes on top, smoothing with a spatula or fork depending on whether you want crispy bits sticking out.
- Bake:
- 350 °F (180°C) until heated through and just starting to brown on top — about 20–30 minutes.
- If making a non-vegan pie, 5 minutes before done pull it out and, top the potato mash with shredded cheese.
- There’s enough food made above that I filled one 9×16 inch cake pan, and a 12″ pie pan and a 10″ pie pan. If you’re not cooking for a crowd or to stock a bunker, think about maybe scaling the recipe down.
- Sneak a bite of the golden potato topping (highly recommended).
🧡 Notes & Tips
- This recipe is flexible. Try it as you go to get the spices the way you want them.
- If you’re thinking “Why is there SO much salt?” It’s because all these root vegetables are just going to absorb it. You can use less if you want, it just won’t taste like a street vendor samosa.
Ingredients
🔻 Root Layers
Golden Potato Mash
- ~ 1 kg Potatoes choose a golden or creamy variety – my ones had blue skins!
- ~ 1 T Salt
- ~ 1 t Turmeric powdered
- ~ 2 T Garam masala
- ~ 1 T Cumin whole
- ~ 2 T Olive oil
- ~ 3 T Coconut oil
Sweet Potato Mash
- ~1 kg Sweet potatoes
- ~ 1 T Salt
- ~ 1 t Paprika not smoked
- ~ 1 t Powdered garlic
- ~ 1 t Powdered onion
- ~ 1 t Cinnamon powdered
- ~ 1 T Garam masala
- ~ 1 T Cumin
- ~ 3 T Butter or vegan butter
- ~ 3 T Buttermilk or plant milk
Macerated Beets
- ~ 1 kg beets
- ~ 1 T Salt
- ~ 1 T Paprika sweet or smoked
- ~ 1 t Powdered garlic
- ~ 1 T Garam masala
- ~ 1 T Cumin whole
- ~ 3 T Olive oil
- ~ 3 T Coconut oil
🔻 Filling
- ~ 200g Red lentils cooked (lazy mode: in reserved potato water)
- ~ 100g Frozen peas
- ~ 400g Roasted carrots
- ~ 300g Chopped onions
- ~ 100g Mushrooms
- ~ 10g Fresh ginger chopped fine
- ~ 40g apple cider vinegar
- ~ 80g apple cider
- ~ 1 t Salt
- Optional: shredded cheese for topping non-vegan
Instructions
🍳 Instructions
Prep your root veg:
- Boil, roast, or steam potatoes, sweet potatoes, and beets. This can be done separately or you can do what I did and push the Instant Pot to the limit of what is reasonable and put them all in at once. Pressure cook for 15 minutes on High and wait for the pot to naturally release.
- You can just use two wooden spoons to pull the veg out. When all the veg are out the water, you can just pour the lentils in and set the pressure cooker on High for 1 minute to cook the lentils while you mash!
- Season each as described and mash — a stand mixer works great here. Make sure to start by quickly flipping on and off “1” or break up the potatoes a bit with a spoon – and then for longer periods of mashing moving up to 2 or 3 will avoid burning out the motor on KitchenAid stand mixers.
Make the filling:
- Sauté chopped onions, mushrooms, and fresh ginger until verry brown. If they start to burn and stick, that’s what I’m talking about. Deglaze with apple cider and apple cider vinegar.
- Dump into a very large bowl and stir in drained, cooked red lentils and seasoned beets to make a hearty, flavor-rich base.
Add the veggie middle:
- Layer roasted carrots and peas on top of the beet-lentil mixture. Sprinkle with garlic powder.
Top with mash:
- Spoon the mashed potatoes on top, smoothing with a spatula or fork depending on whether you want crispy bits sticking out.
Bake:
- 350 °F (180°C) until heated through and just starting to brown on top — about 20–30 minutes.
- If making a non-vegan pie, 5 minutes before done pull it out and, top the potato mash with shredded cheese.
- There’s enough food made above that I filled one 9×16 inch cake pan, and a 12″ pie pan and a 10″ pie pan. If you’re not cooking for a crowd or to stock a bunker, think about maybe scaling the recipe down.
Sneak a bite of the golden potato topping (highly recommended).
Notes
🧡 This recipe is flexible. Try it as you go to get the spices the way you want them.
If you’re thinking “Why is there SO much salt?” It’s because all these root vegetables are just going to absorb it. You can use less if you want, it just won’t taste like a street vendor samosa.
If you’re thinking “Why is there SO much salt?” It’s because all these root vegetables are just going to absorb it. You can use less if you want, it just won’t taste like a street vendor samosa.
