This post was created in partnership with USA Pulses and Pulse Canada.
Since this is our last recipe of 2017, we wanted to make sure that it’s a special one. It needed to check all the boxes we usually try to check with our recipes: nourishing, delicious, seasonal, beautiful, convenient, and a little bit unexpected. This veggie and lentil-centered one pan pie is all of those things. It’s very cozy and fun to prepare, too.
If I had a choice, most of my savory dishes would be one-pan dishes :) Convenience is hard to beat. That little bit of initial effort you put into assembling all the ingredients for a single-pan dish pays off incredibly well when you end up with a big meal, plus a ton of leftovers for the week, having only used one pan or pot in the process.
This one-pan dish is something like a vegetable pot pie, but the crust is made up of thinly mandolined winter roots – potatoes, sweet potatoes, and celery root. The filling is shredded Brussels sprouts, mushrooms, and red lentils (you can add barley, too, for a grain component), that cooks in a mixture of healing spices and coconut milk. The whole thing is packed with a great variety of plants. It’s perfect for those looking to up their intake of vegetables after the holidays, but still wanting to keep their cooking hearty and cozy.
The ingredient that takes this dish into the complete meal category are the red lentils. Vegetable dishes are great on their own, but adding any kind of pulses (lentils, beans, chickpeas, dry peas) to your plant-centric meals will up their nutrition and ability to satisfy quite a bit. Pulses are incredibly nutrient-dense, like superfoods, but they are also very affordable, unlike most other superfoods, so it’s a win-win all around. Try adding about a half a cup of pulses to your meals a few times a week – your cooking will greatly benefit from them, and you’ll be on your way to discovering a whole new world of deliciousness (of you haven’t already, of course). Head here for more of our recipes using pulses, and be sure to check out Half Cup Habit.
Happy New Year! Thank you so much for visiting GK, trying out our recipes, and reading up on the self-care series. It all means so much to us
P.S. There’s still a few days left to enter our 2018 Moon Phase Calendar giveaway. The calendars are beautiful, hand screen-printed, and very useful, so don’t miss out :)
- 3 tablespoons neutral coconut oil or ghee - divided
- 2 teaspoons cumin seeds
- 2 teaspoons coriander seeds - preferably freshly ground
- 5-7 cardamom pods - green shells removed, seeds freshly ground
- 1 tablespoon turmeric powder
- 1 large yellow onion - chopped
- 1-2 small to medium carrots - diced
- sea salt
- pinch of red pepper flakes
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh ginger
- 1 lb crimini mushrooms - sliced
- freshly ground black pepper
- 3 garlic cloves - sliced
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 1 lb Brussels sprouts - shredded in a food processor or sliced thin
- 1 cup red lentils - rinsed
- ½ cup pearled barley - rinsed (optional)
- 4-5 small Yukon gold potatoes - peeled and sliced thin on a mandolin
- 1 large sweet potato - peeled and sliced thin on a mandolin
- 1 medium or 2 small celery roots - peeled and sliced thin on a mandolin (optional)
- 1 can unsweetened Thai coconut milk
- 1 cup vegetable broth or purified water (1½ cups if using barley)
- Preheat oven to 400° F (200° C).
- Warm 2 tablespoons of oil/ghee in a deep, 10-inch cast iron pan over medium heat. Add cumin, coriander, cardamom, and turmeric, and stir the spices around for about 1 minute, until fragrant. Add the onion, carrots, salt, and red pepper flakes and sauté for 7 minutes, until onions are translucent. Add ginger and sauté for 1 more minute.
- Add the mushrooms, salt and black pepper and sauté for 7-8 minutes, until all the liquid released by the mushrooms evaporates. Add the garlic and sauté for 30 seconds, until fragrant. Add the tomato paste, stir to incorporate, and remove the pan from heat.
- Combine the Brussels sprouts, lentils and barley, if using, in a large bowl. Add the onion-mushroom mixture to the same bowl, salt well and toss to combine.
- Arrange half of the potato, sweet potato and celery root slices, if using, on the bottom of the same cast iron pan used for sautéing the onions. Top the layer with the vegetable-lentil mixture, arranged in an even layer. Pour the coconut milk and veggie broth over the vegetable-lentil layer. Arrange the rest of the potato, sweet potato, and celery root slices on top in a spiral. Brush the root vegetable layer with the remaining 1 tablespoons of oil or ghee and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cover, place in the oven, and bake for 30 minutes. Uncover and continue to bake for another 25-30 minutes, until all the vegetables and lentils are soft and cooked throughout. Enjoy right away, scooped out of the pan with a spoon or cut into slices. This dish also makes for great leftovers. Reheat it in portions in the oven or on a pan.
You can use just one type of root vegetable for the crust, you don't have to use all three. Play around and use whatever you're craving or have on hand!
This recipe and photos look amazing. For the amounts of ingredients in the recipe what size cast iron skillet are you using?
Thanks,
Mike
Thanks so much Mike! I use a 10″ cast iron.
That can do for three dinners
What would you substitute for the mushrooms? I have a terrible allergy to fungus and while I like the idea here, I don’t want to die.
Hi Sarah,
I haven’t tried this myself, but I think eggplant would work in place of the mushrooms. Just cut it into small pieces, and make sure that it’s cooked through before you put it in the oven (it will probably take longer to cook than the mushrooms).
I’m on an oil free) dairy free diet. What could I use in place of the oil/ghee?
Hi Allen,
You can try sautéing everything in veggie broth or water and skipping the brushing of the oil on top of the root vegetable crust.
Dear Anya and Masha,
I’ve been reading your blog for a while now and have to thank you for this wonderful idea especially. I’ve used spinach instead of Brussel sprouts (my husband’s not a fan)… now we are about to have seconds :)
Can’t wait for your book – it’s preordered :))!
Thank you and all the best,
Sabina from Switzerland
Hi Sabina,
SO glad you enjoyed this dish :) And thank you so much for supporting and pre-ordering the book!!!
What gluten free grain would work for this recipe? Thanks!
Hi Susan,
You could try using quinoa or millet, just soak them overnight before making the recipe.
Hope you enjoy it :)
This looks amazing! Could I use the french puy lentils instead?
Hi! Thank you!
I think French lentils would work if you soaked them overnight in purified water before making the recipe. French lentils generally cook slower than red lentils, so soaking them will speed up their cooking time. Hope you enjoy the dish!
I made this pie to go along with a plant based Christmas dinner spread and it worked so well–the recipe is easy to follow and the pie is so delicious. I will definitely be making this again! Thank you for this great recipe.
So glad you enjoyed it! Thanks so much for leaving this note.