Happy St. Patty’s Day with Shepherd’s Pie!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

St-Patricks-Day-2013
Cuteness!

I really wanted Shepherd’s pie today, and since John isn’t eating meat, we thought we would try the Morningstar crumbles in place of the ground beef.  John found this recipe on All Recipes for Zippy Shepherd’s pie. We converted it to a veggie recipe and made the changes below:

1 pound potatoes, peeled and chopped
1 tablespoon canola oil
3/4 pound Morningstar Crumbles
1/2 large onion, finely chopped
1 red bell pepper, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 (14 ounce) can veggie broth
2 tablespoons ketchup
2 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon mild curry powder
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 can of petite diced tomatoes (15 oz)
7 ounces of diced carrots
1/4 cup milk
1 tablespoon butter
1 cup shredded extra-sharp Cheddar cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Peel and cut the potatoes. Place into a pot with water and boil for about 10 minutes until fork tender.

Now we used raw carrots instead of the frozen peas and carrots the recipe called for, so we cooked the carrots in the microwave for about 10 minutes with some water to cook them since the stove time is really short on this.

In a large pan, add the oil, the veggie crumbles, the onions and peppers and the garlic. Cook for several minutes until heated through. Then add the broth, curry powder, ketchup, worchestershire sauce and bring to a boil. Mix 1 tablespoon of corn starch with about 1 tablespoon of cold water and add to the pan. Stir well until the mixture starts to thicken.  Then add in the tomatoes and cooked carrots and simmer.  We cooked this for probably 10 minutes or so while we got the potatoes mashed.  This thickened up the sauce nicely. If you don’t do this, you might want to do another round of  cornstarch/water.

After draining the potatoes, mash together with the butter, milk, salt and pepper.

Turn on the oven broiler. Take a large casserole dish and pour in the ‘meat’ filling.  Spread the mashed potatoes on top.  There really aren’t a lot of potatoes in this version, so the top layer is a little thin.  Then top with the cheddar cheese and broil for a couple minutes until the cheese is melted.  We almost burned ours LOL!  I had to take off the really dark part of the cheese.

Veggie Shepherd's Pie

Verdict? This was quite tasty!  I would definitely make it again. It’s pretty filling, too.

Veggie Shepherd's Pie

 

Nutritional information:  This is calculated with our changes above. Obviously if you use real meat, it will be different.

This makes 6 servings. Each serving has 293 calories, 32 grams of carbs, 11 grams of fat, 18 grams of protein and 5 grams of fiber.

 

8 thoughts on “Happy St. Patty’s Day with Shepherd’s Pie!

  1. Helen

    Shepherd’s Pie is one of those childhood dishes that grossed me out and I’ve never even wanted to eat it once I had the choice. Yours actually looks delicious but I know once I put it in my mouth I’d be all ‘no’ like Grumpy Cat.

    And I agree with Shelley – green soda would have made that a full on Irish experience 😀

  2. debby

    The only shepherd’s pie I ever had was really really simple–left over roast beef with some peas on top, covered with mashed potatoes and baked for a while. Somehow there was some gravy in there too. Anyway, I did like it. I’ve made a lower calorie version once. But I never can figure out the gravy part.

  3. Fran

    I have never made shepherd’s pie but it is still on my list to make it one day. I have some recipes for it in my cook books. And like Biz I would meat in it too 🙂 but this looks very good.

  4. Linda E.

    Not a huge Shepherd’s pie fan, especially if it contains peas. Two veggies I can’t do- peas and beets, also not to fond of lima beans. but this looks yummy! Especially the dark parts. May try a variation on this recipe.

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