Lentil Stew Ingredients

• 1 cup puy lentils (otherwise called french green lentils)
• 4cups vegetable stock (or water with some stock cubes)
• 1/2-1 sliced red onion (white onions ok too)
• 1 slug (4 tablespoons) red wine vinegar
• 1/2 cup red wine
• 1 tbs sweet paprika
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper or chilli flakes
• 1 tbs ground coriander
• seasoning t0 taste once lentils are cooked
• chopped parsley (optional)

Roast Carrots & Tomatoes Ingredients

• 4 medium sized carrots
• 4 medium sized tomatoes
• 1 bulb garlic
• 1 dashing of olive oil
• 1 tbs ground coriander
• 2 tbs honey (optional)
• seasoning

Filo Ingredients

• filo pastry
• Melted butter

Lentil Stew

• Rinse the lentils at least three times and preferably soak them for a few hours before cooking – this will make them easier to digest and cook faster. If you don’t have the time or forethought for this don’t worry.
• Slice up the onion and add the rest of the ingredients for the lentil stew into a pot and bring up to the boil then gently simmer until the lentils are soft and tender. This should take about 30 minutes or 20 minutes if you have pre-soaked the lentils. You want some stock or water left to make up a thick creamy sauce for the pie – but only a little. Add more stock or water ifit runs out before the lentils have cooked.

Carrot Soup Ingredients

• Grate the carrots and add the water/stock and the rest of the ingredients along with half of the lime cashew cream. Don’t add all of the water/stock at once, as carrots vary in the amount of liquid they contain – so you may need to use more or less water/stock to get the desired consistency.
• Heat to desired temperature before serving.
• Spoon in a tablespoon of cashew cream and sprinkle over coriander or Thai basil along with some extra virgin olive oil to garnish.

Roast Carrots & Tomatoes

• Pre-heat the oven to 250°C on fan bake.
• Slice the carrots and tomatoes in half. Also cut the bottom of the garlic bulb off so that you can see the cloves inside. Put all of them face down on a oven roasting tray and lavish the olive oil all over. Rub the vegetables with your fingers to make sure they are coated in oil. Then lavishly sprinkly with salt, pepper and the coriander.You can also pour a little bit of honey over the carrots for extra flavour and caramelization.
• Cook until the carrots and tomatoes have slightly shriveled. Keep an eye on them throughout the cooking process as, depending on the oven you may need to turn it down so they don’t burn. This should take no longer than the lentil will to cook.

Filo pastry

• Lay your filo pastry out flat on your bench. You can place a wet tea  towel over it to stop it drying out if you are not confident of working fast enough.
• With a brush coat each sheet with oil before using it – you can also use melted butter for extra flavour. Oil your pie dish (we use a 12” dish for this recipe so if you use a larger or smaller one be sure to adjust quantities) and place in at least ten layers of oiled filo pastry. Be sure that the pastry comes up the side of the dish and has a fair bit of overhang. You don’t have to be exact with filo, in fact a bit of slap and dash roughness is just fine.
• Slice up the roast carrots into small chunks, squeeze out the roasted garlic and mash in the roasted tomatoes into the lentil stew. Taste it to make sure there is enough flavour – if not add more seasoning. You can even add another dash of vinegar at this point.
• Pour the mixture into the pie dish over the first layers of filo pastry. Then over the top of the full pie dish place more layers of oiled filo pastry – at least ten. with any of the overhanging filo pastry from either the top or the sides of the pie just roll them up around the edges of the pie to form a seal, again you don’t have to be fussy about this, a bit of roughness will create more texture in the pie anyway. Brush the top of the pie with oil or melted butter – be lavish.
• Put into a pre-heated oven at 180°C until the top of the pie is golden and crunchy. Watch it closely and be prepared to the oven down if necessary. Filo can burn very easily. This should only take about 10-15 minutes.

Voila! Enjoy with a grated carrot side salad with an olive oil, honey and lemon dressing.