Shepherd's Pie

I got the idea for what to make for last night's dinner from Denise. I liked her suggestion that one could use lentils in the pie, since I don't like TVP. But I decided to fuse that idea with my mom's way of making "hamburger pie" which I grew up with. When I went to the farmer's market, I looked for vegetables that were in season to use--you could use just about any vegetables you want. I used carrots and asparagus. Here's the result.




First, I had some water I saved from soaking sun-dried tomatoes in the other night when I made pizza. I think this added enough flavor to recommend using soaking water, and you could even add the sun-dried tomatoes to the mix, even though I didn't. Add them when you add the canned tomatoes, later.

Anyway, I cooked a cup of French lentils in the soaking water, adding water and a bit of red wine when it needed more liquid. Cook until tender--but they don't have to be mushy tender, just tender enough to eat.

Then I put on a pot of cut-up potatoes (I didn't peel the potatoes, but if you don't like skins in your mashed potatoes, peel them) on the stove, covered in water. Cook those until tender. I used, oh, probably about 6 med-large potatoes-worth (some were smaller, so I used more).

Here's where I diverged to make one vegan pie and one regular vegetarian. (This uses rather a lot of pots, even if I hadn't made two different pies!) I put one large saute pan on with a tablespoon of butter, and a smaller skillet on with olive oil. I added a couple of chopped spring onions, white part only (maybe only available at farmer's markets--and only at this time of year) and sauteed. I saved the greens to add at the end. Then came four sliced carrots and 4 cloves of garlic, sauteeing them until the carrots are tender-crisp. Then I added two tablespoons of flour to the large, 1/2 tablespoon to the small, and stirred until the flour was cooked a bit. Then I took one 28 oz. can of tomatoes, which I'd used my stick blender and made into a puree (or you could just buy puree) and added that to the pans. Stir and cook, then add a bit of milk/soy milk to the mix. Stir and cook, until it's bubbly and thickened. Then I added a pound of asparagus, chopped fine (because said vegan daughter says she doesn't like asparagus--well, she does now, in this recipe!) and add the sliced greens from the onions, and a handful of chopped parsley. Salt and pepper. Stir in the lentils. Turn off heat and put aside.

I mashed the potatoes in the usual way: with milk, butter, salt and pepper for the non-vegans, oil and soy milk and salt and pepper for the vegan.

Put each of the veggie fillings in their own dish, and top with mashed potatoes. For the non-vegan, I put slices of cheese on top. Put in a 350 degree oven and bake until the cheese is beginning to melt and the filling is bubbly, about 20 minutes.

We all really liked this! It was so flavorful.