Root veg and squash mash with lentils, shallots braised in red wine

This is very close to a Yotam Ottalenghi recipe - but we didn't have celeriac, puy lentils or ground cumin - so we used celery with the shallots, some little green lentils and a little biryani curry mix instead - and it was delicious.

Start with the shallots, then the lentils, then the root vegetables.

Shallots braised in red wine

Olive oil
Shallots, peeled and chopped if necessary
Celery, chopped
Bay leaves
Mixed herbs
Vegetable stock
Red wine
salt and black pepper

1. Sweat off shallots and celery in olive oil.
2.  Add bay leaves and herbs, chuck in wine and stock.
3.  Simmer for about an hour until veg are soft.  Add more wine/stock if it is going dry.
4.  At the end turn heat up, to thicken sauce into sticky yumminess.
(You could pull out the veg, and stir in a knob of butter, to make more luxurious)

Lentils

Boil in plenty of water until soft - about 30 minutes. Drain.

Root vegetable mash

2 carrots, peeled and chopped into chunks
2 sweet potatoes, chopped into chunks
1 squash (festival in our case) peeled, deseeded and chopped into chunks
salt
black pepper
butter
curry powder (or some other spice eg. cumin)

1.  Boil carrots for about 10 minutes
2.  Then add other veg and boil until all yield to a sharp knife.
3.  Drain, add a good knob of butter and seasonings.  Mash.
4.  Stir in lentils.

Serve mash and lentils with shallot, red wine sauce on top.

Extremely healthy comfort food.  DELICIOUS.