Cumin get it! - Vegetarian pie

The flavours in this dish always remind me of a beautiful Lamb stew that has been braising on the stove for a couple of hours. Except, there's no meat in sight. This is a vegetarian pie or hot pot I guess you could also call it. Whatever it is, it's YUM!I also love the ground cumin in this dish. I think it just takes it to a whole new level as opposed to using say, Thyme or oregano.
When you want to feed a number of people then make this! Everyone will be happy. If you do have a few die-hard-meat-eating males, just bbq some lamb chops for them (or better still get them to do it!). That should keep them quiet... Trust me, everyone will love the flavour of this dish.


ingredients

500g butternut pumpkin, peeled, deseeded, cut into 3cm cubes
300g flat mushrooms chopped into small pieces
2 carrots, peeled and coarsely chopped
2 zucchini, coarsely chopped
1 leek, white part thinly chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 x 800g tin of chopped tomatoes
250ml vegetable stock
2 x 400g tins chickpeas, drained and rinsed
250g green beans, topped and chopped in half
chopped fresh coriander (I like to use the whole bunch but you can use a half cup if you like)
6 desiree potatoes, unpeeled and sliced thinly
approx 1 cup parmesan cheese


how to make your pie

heat some oil in a large saucepan over medium high heat. Add the pumpkin, mushroom, carrot, zucchini, leek and garlic and cook, stirring for 5 mins or until leek softens. Pre heat oven to 180C.
Add the cumin and atir for 30 secs until arromatic.
Add the tomato and the stock and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to medium low and cook covered stirring occasionally for 15 mins. uncover and simmer for 10 mins. Add the chickpeas and beans and cook stirring for 5 mins or until beans are bright green. Add the coriander and stir to combine.
Place mix in a large ovenproof dish. top with the potato slices slightly overlapping. Sprinkle with the parmesan cheese (to taste). Bake in the oven for 40 mins or until potato is cooked through and slightly browned.

Serves 6 - 8 people with a rocket salad, some beautiful bread (our friends brought some Garlic Brasserie bread which was to die for) and some white wine.

#I also made a Caraway damper to accompany this dish except that I didn't cook it long enough. Left with pure dough in the middle, we ate the yummy bits, which were yummy but yes, dough = not yummy. So I will work on this recipe and when I've perfected it, I'll pop it up on the blog.