Vegetarian Shepherds Pie

Sorry it has been so long since my last post, midterms have been a bit rough.  Now that they are over with I want to get back on a health kick to shed some of the stress weight I put on.  Tonight I decided to make vegetarian shepherds pie.  It is loaded with vegetables and you don't feel as guilty when you eat more than a super small amount.  Hell yeah.

So I did not actually follow a recipe for this one.  I just browsed through some to get a general idea and made it up as I went along.  I started by boiling some sweet potatoes.  It takes a while, so make sure to put it on first.  Check them periodically with a fork, when they go into the flesh easily, they are ready.  You could use white potatoes for this part, but who would want to when sweet potatoes taste so good? I don't think white would taste as good anyways.

See?  Look how tasty they seem, just sitting in water and being a potato

While that was going I heated about two tablespoons of olive oil in a deep skillet.  Then I chopped up about half a cup of carrots and one large onion and added them in.  

Once the onions are sweated and the carrots are nice and soft the flour and vegetable broth gets put in.  I was already worried by this point that one can of broth was not enough, but I assure you, it is.  Once everything is added take it off the heat and add the rest of the vegetable to it.  Pour it all into a greased up pan.

By this point it started looking like one of those frozen mixed vegetable pouches you can buy with some onion added.  I suppose if you were feeling lazy you could go with that route.  

Once the potatoes are done start preheating the oven.  Peel the skin off of those beauties and mash them up (with a little milk, of course)!

Once that is done, spoon them on top and spread them out.  Try to cover all the vegetables.

This bakes for a bit, about half way through turn the oven to broil or it will never finish and you will have hungry family/guests staring at you with discontent.

I think mine could have been cooked a little longer, but I was hungry, so was my better half, so that would have to do.

The result?

Pretty damn good.  This has to be one of my favorite rather inexpensive meals.  It was sweet and filling.  My boyfriend was not as impressed, but he hates sweet potatoes and cooked vegetables so his opinion on this one is irrelevant.  If you are looking for something different, I highly suggest you try it out.

Ingredients:

1 large onion, medium diced

1 cup carrots, chopped 

1 can (15 oz) sweet corn kernels

14 oz frozen peas

14 oz vegetable broth

4 large sweet potatoes

2 tablespoons flour

1/4 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk (any milk can be substituted)

2 tablespoons olive oil

Directions:

1. Fill a large pot with water and boil sweet potatoes over medium-high heat

2. Heat olive oil over medium heat in a large skillet

3. Chop carrots and add to skillet

4. Once the carrots begin to soften add onions and cook until translucent

5. Add vegetable broth, flour, and remove from heat.  Stir in the flour well.

6. Grease baking dish or use a oil spray

7. Add corn and peas to the vegetable mix and stir them in evenly

8. Pour vegetable mix into dish and spread out evenly

9. Preheat oven to 350 F

10. When the potatoes are done drain them, peel them, then return them to the pan.

11. Add milk and mash the potatoes.

12. Spoon the potatoes on top of the vegetable mixture and spread evenly

13. Bake in the oven for about 30 min

14. Set the oven to broil and keep it in there until the potatoes start to slightly harden (about 10-15 min)

15. Take out and let set for 10 min 

16. Enjoy it.