Tutti Rooti

Winter gets a bad rep for vegetables and unnecessarily so. This is the time when we can indulge in that hidden delight of the plant: the root!
Hearty, healthy and full of flavour this next recipe makes the most of winter's best produce.

(this recipe can be found in its original form on the BBC Good Food Website... but trust me its better this way)

Turnip and Bacon Pie

Ingredients
1 turnip (peeled and chopped into 2 cm cubes)
1 onion (chopped)
1 carrot (sliced)
12 rashers of bacon ( devoid of fat and chopped into slithers)
3 potatoes (peeled and chopped into chunks)
1 parsnip (peeled and chopped into chunks)
300ml chicken stock
lots of parsley (chopped)
1 tbls butter
1 tbls milk
salt and pepper

Method

• Boil your potatoes and parsnip until soft and then mash with the butter and milk.
• Fry the bacon in a little olive oil (or you can use some of the discarded fat)
  
• Remove the bacon from the pan and sauté the onions in the same oil (adding more if necessary) until soft
• Then add the turnip and carrot and cook for 2 minutes.
• Pour in the chicken stock and cook until the vegetables are soft but not smooshy.
• At this point you might want to add a little cornflour (about 2 tsp mixed in 2 tbls of water) to thicken the gravy
• Season the mix and stir in the parsley.
• Transfer the filling into a medium sized pie dish and cover with the mashed potato/parsnip.
  
• Fluff up the potato topping with a fork (this gives nice crusty bits later on)
• Grill the pie until the topping starts to turn crispy and light brown.
• Serve piping hot from the oven for a great winter supper.