Think cottage pie that is now spicy, vegetarian and includes a sweet potato twist! This spicy harissa aubergine and sweet potato pie is comfort food at its finest – perfect for a cold night!
I have adapted this recipe from the BBC good food website, making it slightly spicier and serving only four people instead of six. The leftovers can easily be frozen and then defrosted and reheated in the microwave another day! Perfect for meal prep!
This recipe is really easy to make, as you can make the aubergine-tomato-filling whilst you wait for the sweet potato to boil for the mash. There are different opportunities for you to switch out ingredients in this recipe to tailor it to your liking, so check out the next section of this post to find out what you can do!
What goes into this vegetarian harissa aubergine and sweet potato pie?
I love all of the ingredients that go into this spicy harissa aubergine and sweet potato pie: Aubergines, lentils, green olives, feta cheese, sweet potato… And plenty of spice! But I know these ingredients are not everyone´s cup of tea!
Luckily, you can easily swap out some of the ingredients to tailor this recipe to your liking! Starting with the mashed sweet potato topping, if you are not the biggest sweet potato fan, simply use white potatoes instead! However – these won´t count towards your five-a-day! 😉
For the filling, you can swap the aubergines for different vegetables such as courgettes or peppers. The lentils help give this dish some body and texture as there is no meat, but they don´t have a strong flavour. So even if you think you might not like lentils, why not give it a try? You might be surprised?
Depending on your preference, you could use black olives instead of green ones, or leave them completely out of this recipe. Personally, I also love spicy food, so adding a good dollop of harissa paste (a hot Tunisian chilli pepper paste, readily available from the supermarket) really makes this dish sing! But for the more fainthearted amongst you, you might want to reduce the amount you add or leave the harissa out completely (although that totally makes the dish!😉)
More Freezer-friendly Recipes
As mentioned above, this spicy harissa aubergine and sweet potato pie is perfect for freezing. Simply freeze individual portions in some plastic containers and then defrost and reheat when needed. This kind of meal prep is ideal for when you don´t feel like or don´t have time for cooking. I have a lot of different recipes on my blog that are freezer-friendly and ideal for meal prep, so why not go and check out some of the other recipes below?
- Chicken, Sweet Potato and Spinach Curry
- Vegan Mixed Bean Chilli
- Easy Student Lasagne
- Grandma´s Thick Vegetable Soup
- Homemade Pizzas (normal dough) or Sourdough Base Pizzas
- Thai Green Chicken Curry
- Roasted Mediterranean Vegetable Lasagne
- Curried Cauliflower and Chickpea Pilaf (Vegan)
- The BEST Chicken, Bacon and Leek Pie (with Hot Water Crust Pastry)
Spicy Harissa Aubergine and Sweet Potato Pie
Recipe
Ingredients (serves 4):
- 700g sweet potato (~600g once peeled)
- 1-2 tbsp milk
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 large or 2 medium aubergines, cut into chunks
- 2 red onions, sliced into semi circles
- 2 large garlic cloves, minced
- 1 tbsp tomato purée
- 2 tbsp harissa paste
- 1 tbsp ground coriander
- 400g tin chopped tomatoes
- 250g pouch cooked puy lentils (I used Merchant Gourmet)
- 1 vegetable stock cube, dissolved in 200ml boiling water
- 100g green olives, pitted
- Fresh or frozen parsley, finely chopped (optional)
- 100g feta cheese
Method:
- Peel and cut the sweet potato into cubes, then boil in slightly salted water for about 15 minutes until softened. Strain the sweet potato through a colander, then leave to steam dry for a few minutes. Return to the pot and mash the sweet potato with a little milk until smooth. Season generously with salt and pepper.
- In the meantime, heat half of the olive oil in a large frying pan and fry the aubergine for 10-15 minutes until golden and starting to soften. Then remove from the pan and set aside until needed.
- Put the pan back onto the heat, warm the remaining olive oil and then gently fry the onions for 7-10 minutes until softened. Next, stir in the garlic, tomato purée, harissa paste, ground coriander and cook for a minute.
- Return the aubergines to the frying pan alongside the chopped tomatoes, vegetable stock, puy lentils and olives.
- Gently simmer for 10 minutes, then stir in the chopped parsley.
- In the meantime, preheat the grill to the highest setting.
- Transfer the aubergine-tomato-mix into an oven-proof dish and crumble half of the feta cheese on top. Carefully spoon the sweet potato mash on top and spread out in an even layer. Then sprinkle the remaining feta cheese over the mash.
- Place the pie under the grill for 10-15 minutes until the top of the sweet potato mash and feta cheese start to crisp up and the pie is fully heated through.
