Vegetarian shepherds pie

 

Once upon a time, deep in the heart of Scotland, a lonely shepherd roamed the grassy hills with his beloved sheep. The sky was a fresh opalescent blue and the grass was green and lush. He spent all day outside so when he came home he was ravished. He was delighted to see his mother had made shepherds pie for dinner, his favorite meal of all. The potato topping was so delicious and buttery, the vegetables so tender, the meat was so… WAIT A MINUTE! Oh no no no that’s not going to work, whatever happened to vegetarian shepherds pie?…. I guess I’m going to just have to make one to complete this story, here we go!

FILLING:

1 small zucchini, chopped into little pieces.

1 small onion, diced.

½ cup green beans chopped into bite sized pieces (or peas if you have them, I didn’t)

2 cups fresh spinach

2 veggie burgers chopped into little tiny bits. (Any veggie burger will do, they all tend to crumble when chopped)

1 cup grated cheese, I used Colby jack.

2 tbsp. olive oil

Salt, oregano, sage, pepper, basil, rosemary to taste

Instructions:

Sautee the chopped onion, burger pieces and zucchini in the olive oil medium high heat till tender. Then add the green beans and spinach till the spinach is nice and steamed. Now season to taste. Put this mixture aside till you have the topping ready.

TOPPING: (I deviated from an original recipe and added mashed carrots for the sweet taste and high nutritional value, feel free to omit if you want, but I highly consider you try it at least once.)

2 small sweet potatoes or white potatoes if you don’t like sweet potatoes. (Chopped for quicker cooking)

2 medium carrots, chopped into chunks.

Pat of butter

2 tsp. sour cream

Pinch of salt

2 cloves garlic, crushed

INSTRUCTIONS:

Boil a pot of water and add the carrots and potatoes, cook till very soft and mashable. Next, mash it all with the butter, sour cream, salt and garlic.

Now for the fun part; layering the pie. Take a pie pan that is big enough to fit all the ingredients. First put a layer of the veggie/cheese mixture, or you can just layer cheese over a bottom layer of veggie mix. Finally spread the potato/carrot mash on top and cover everything, make it look all pretty and picture worthy. Pop it into the oven and bake for about 20 minutes at 340 degrees.

 

Sprinkle some chopped parsley or chives on top when you take it out and serve immediately, preferably with a cup of sweet iced tea.

Meanwhile… the little shepherd boy ate his veggie shepherd’s pie and was very content. He looked forward to having a piece for breakfast with a glass of fresh milk.

The End J