shepherd-less pie

I cooked last night!! I know, Jordan was shocked too. Most nights it seems to be frozen lasagne, pizza, wraps, or just good old eating out on the menu. Not quite the gourmet meals I imagined preparing while on mat leave. I would say we are lucky to have a home cooked meal (that involves more than setting the oven to 375 degrees) once or twice a week. So, starting the week off right!

On the menu last night was a meatless Shepherds pie, shepherd-less pie if you like. There are all kinds  of ways to make a shepherds pie without meat (most commonly with lentils), but I had veggie crumbles in the fridge that needed using up, and I'd say it turned out really well! Close to the original hearty Irish meal, except I threw in a few other changes too (my meat-eating Irish father is most likely shaking his head at this point). 

We have a friend who is going meatless for a month (you know who you are!), so this recipe is in honour of him. Good luck, can't wait to hear how it goes...

Shepherd-less Pie

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 cup diced onions

1 cup diced parsnip

1 cup diced carrots

1 cup frozen peas

1/2 cup diced red pepper

1 cup chopped mushrooms

1 pkg veggie crumbles

2 cloves garlic, minced

Pinch cayenne

1 teaspoon dried thyme

2 bay leaves

1 tablespoon flour

1 1/2 cups of dark ale (or 1 bottle) or 1 ½ cups stock (vegetable, mushroom or…beef)

1 cup crushed tomatoes

2 tablespoon soy sauce

1 tsp tomato paste

salt and pepper to taste

11/2 lbs Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and quartered (I replaced half of this with sweet potato for a healthier and tastier topping, steamed separately) 

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup milk

1 cup grated cheddar

1. Prepare veg. Chop away. Bring potatoes to a boil and cook until softened for 12-15 minutes. Steam or boil sweet potato if using.

2. While potatoes are cooking, heat oil in saucepan and saute onions, carrots and parsnips until slightly softened (around 4 minutes).

3. Add mushrooms, red pepper, garlic, thyme and cayenne. Saute for around 3 minutes, until mushrooms and red pepper are cooked. Add flour and bay leaves.

4. Add ale, soy sauce, tomatoes, tomato paste and bring to a boil. Once boiling, bring down to a simmer for 20-25 minutes until sauce is thickened. Add mashed veggie crumbles and frozen peas. Heat through for 5 minutes and season to taste.

5. Prepare potato topping. Mash cooked potatoes and sweet potato with butter and milk until smooth; then whip with a hand mixer until smooth. Season with salt and pepper.

6. Pour meatless mix into medium casserole dish (I used a 9x13, but a slightly smaller one would have been better for a better filling to potato ratio). Top with potatoes and grated cheddar.

7. Cook at 375 for 20-25 minutes until hot and bubbling. Broil until top is slightly browned and crispy.

(again, the photos don't do this dish justice, it's hard to make shepherd's pie look pretty, but you get the idea!)

vegetarian poutine

Oh, dear. This picture does not do this justice at all. In fact it looks pretty unappetizing...but it's poutine! and it's vegetarian! Fries. Cheese. Gravy. Goodness. You can't really go wrong. The vegetarian answer to the original. Quick, easy, and the perfect comfort food for a snowy cold day in January.

Mushroom Gravy:

It all started over Christmas when I decided to try a vegetarian gravy for the first time. I'm not sure what took me so long, because it's just as good, I would even go so far as to say better than regular fatty animal gravy. I started with this recipe here and modified it a bit.

3 tbsp butter
2 tbsp finely chopped onions
2 minced garlic cloves
1 portabella mushroom, roughly chopped into bite-size pieces
3 tbsp flour
2 tbsp soy sauce
1.5 - 2 cups vegetable stock (depending on desired thickness)
salt and pepper to taste

Melt butter in pot and add onions and garlic on med-high heat. Sauté for a couple minutes, then add mushrooms and sauté until softened and browned slightly. Reduce heat to medium. Slowly add flour, continuing to stir onion and mushroom mixture for one minute. Add soy sauce and half of vegetable stock, and continue adding stock until you have the desired gravy consistency. Sauce will thicken as it cooks. Season to taste.

Poutine:

1. Throw some french fries in a bowl. If you're feeling ambitious they could be homemade, or if you just want the cheesy goodness stat, go for frozen like I did.
2. Top with grated mozzarella (traditionally it would be cheese curds, but we had mozzarella and it melted well).
3. Top cheese and fries with gravy and green onions.
4. Devour.

XO

new years resolution chili

So, both Jordan and I feel fat. After weeks of Christmas meals, baked goods, easy frozen pizzas and lasagnas we were desperate for something healthy and delicious for dinner. We had this Roasted Sweet Potato and Black Bean Chili for dinner last night from Allrecipes.com...so tasty and healthy too. And it made a huge pot and leftovers are the greatest. You roast the sweet potatoes first so they're nice and crispy on the outside and they don't turn to mush in the chili. Try it!