Weather sez it's time for Stovies

Stovies with pickled vegetable salad, sweet red cabbage and crusty bread. Yummers!

This morning, as I dropped my son off at his nursery, I noticed - or rather, my nose noticed - that they were cooking stovies for the mid-morning snack. Stovies is a traditional Scottish dish that originated as a way of using up leftover meat and fat. Basically, you would use anything from roast meat to mince to sausage and you'd boil it down until tender with potatoes and onions, turnip, swede or any other root veggies you have knocking round. You use stock or gravy for liquid, and serve it with the ubiquitous vinegary brown sauce that is so adored round these parts.
Now, if you're a vegan, you don't want to make it that way. But you can make it just as easily using one of my favourite pulses - split red lentils. And if you have a pressure cooker, it takes even less time to get to the point where the potatoes and swedes break down to make a delicious, soupy, casserole-y mess.

Red Lentil Stovies - Makes 8 servings

2 tbsp vegan butter
1/8 cup rapeseed oil
2 leeks, cleaned and sliced
1 white onion, diced
5 medium potatoes, cleaned and roughly chopped
2 large carrots, sliced
1 cup diced swede
1/2 cup red lentils, rinsed and picked over
1 tsp beef and steak seasoning (or fake beef boullion powder, or marmite)
2 maggi savoury stock cubes, crumbled
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 tsp thyme
Enough water to just cover the veggies and lentils.

Method: Melt the vegan butter and oil together in a large, heavy based pan over a medium heat before adding in sliced leeks and onions. Cook for five-ten minutes until onions are translucent before adding the red lentils. Stir them to ensure thoroughly covered in the oil-butter mix. Then add potatoes, carrots, swede, seasonings and enough water to just cover the veggies and lentils. You want the veggies to cook down and combine with the water to make a thick, delicious gravy. Too much water and you'll have soup rather than stovies!
Bring the mix to the boil then turn down to a simmer, cover the pan and cook until the vegetables are falling apart and the lentils are soft and silky, stirring every now and then to ensure it's not sticking to the bottom. Break the veggies down a little with a potato masher and you're ready to go!
This dish is traditionally served with brown sauce - I ♥ brown sauce! - but is just as good with a tart side dish such as sauerkraut, pickled red cabbage, dill pickles or even kimchi.
Easy, comforting, savoury and delicious. I suggest you all go and try it when bad weather is getting you down, your 7-year old is testing your patience with her deliberate obtuseness and your 3-year old is having so many hissy fits you've lost track. Just shut the kitchen door on them, put on some soothing zero 7 or telepopmusik to remind you that a few weeks ago, it was still summer, and cook away...