My take on a shepard's pie, and the giveaway WINNER!

Lately Andrew and I have been reminiscing with our taste buds.  About things like cold ice cream from a those melodic trucks that come around the neighborhoods this time of year.  Or the moment a rich custard slides from the spoon into your mouth.  One thing my husband mentioned was Shepard's pie.  Also known as farmer's pie, cottage pie, or poor-man's pie, I sadly didn't have the same affection for this dish.  When I was younger I had this strange disgust of peas and cooked carrots, and a love-hate relationship with meat.  I would try to get away with eating just the crust on the pie, much to my mother's dismay.  

Now, however, I love peas, and carrots both cooked or raw are fine by me.  I started pondering making a vegetarian gluten free Shepard's pie, but something about making gluten-free pie crust intimidates me immensely.

One day at the gym, I was flipping through a magazine when I found my solution.  A photograph of a Shepard's pie, except with only a pie-crust bottom, not a pie-top.  Instead, it was topped with mashed potatoes.  Genius!  Both Andrew and I love the creamy texture of mashed potatoes, and I figured that I could use mashed potatoes to also act as a bottom layer instead of a pie crust.  When I got home and looked in the pantry, I spotted two Hannah yams and one Japanese yam.  Hannah yams are super sweet and have the most lovely orange hue to them.  Japanese yams have a purple-ish skin, and are lightly yellow on the inside.  Sweet potatoes -- the perfect accident.

To replace the chicken/meat normally found in Shepard's pie, I used locally grown and made black bean tempeh -- but you can use any kind of tempeh you wish.  If you've never had tempeh, you can find it in health food stores -- most supermarkets carry it these days, though.  Normally it's made by fermenting and culturing soy beans, but the black bean version that I buy is just as tasty and full of protein.  If you can't find it, you can use 2 cups of chickpeas, soy beans, or black beans.

Since I've made so many substitutions to this dish, I think it's probably better named as a farmer's pie -- and it truly is.  The tempeh is made by local farmers, and the dish celebrates what a farmer might have left over in storage and freshly growing in his or her garden right now:  Hopefully all the storage sweet potatoes and onions haven't been used up, perhaps there are some fresh spring onions forming in the soil right now.  I put some peas for both tradition and springtime in this meal, along with asparagus and carrots.  Along with some baby greens, this dish sings spring.  Although, there is one hint of the summertime that's to come -- zucchini.

This meal is definitely hearty and homey.  It doesn't look perfect on a plate, but it tastes perfect.  The sweet potatoes hug all the flavors and brightness of the vegetables in the most loving way.  Each bite is a little bit different, but equally full of wholesome goodness. 

Do you have a dish that you loved and then totally morphed? 

Shepard's/Farmer's Pie

• 4 large sweet potatoes, diced, boiled, and mashed for a more rustic feel, I didn't completely mash them
• 2 tablespoons olive oil 
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon dried thyme
• 2-3 tablespoons Italian Seasoning
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly cracked pepper
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 carrots, chopped
• 1 zucchini, chopped
• 1 package of tempeh, chopped, or 2 cups of beans of your choice
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 2 cups chopped leafy greens, like baby spinach, kale, or collard greens
• 1/2 pound fresh asparagus, with the bottom 3-4 inches discarded, and chopped.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  In a large skillet, warm up the olive oil.  Add the onions, and stir occasionally until almost translucent, about five minutes.  Add in the remaining vegetables and tempeh/beans (although not the sweet potatoes), spices and salt, and cook thoroughly, for about 15 minutes.  You may need to add a little water to your pan. While the veggies are cooking, grease a pie dish with butter or olive oil.  Scoop about half of the mashed sweet potatoes onto the bottom of the dish, and spread it evenly with the back of a large spoon, ensuring that the entire dish is covered.  When the veggies are done, pour them into a colander to make sure most of the moisture is gone, and pour them on top of the sweet potato layer in the pie dish.  Top with the remaining sweet potatoes.  Bake for 50 minutes, or until the sweet potatoes start to turn golden brown.  Serves 2 hungry eaters.

Thanks to everyone who entered the kombucha giveaway on Monday!  I enjoyed reading about your new spring endeavors, goals, and successes.  Using a random number generator, the winner is...::drum roll::.....  

Commenter number 10, Lisa from Thrive Style!  Congrats, Lisa!  I'll be sending you the kombucha coupons soon!

Be well, all.