Vegetarian Shephard's Pie

Vegetarian Shephard's Pie (cooked vegetable and lentils

topped with garlic mashed potatoes)

This recipe is compliments to Chuck Hughes, from Cooking Channel's Chuck's Day Off. I always like watching him cook because his style of cooking is so unique. I especially liked this episode because it was all vegetarian dishes. I basically followed his recipe for the pie, except for the roasted spaghetti squash. That part seemed tedious so I left it out. Besides that, here is the recipe for vegetarian shephard's pie, which made about 4 servings (half of Chuck's recipe).

For the Mashed Potatoes:

3 big russet potatoes, boiled for 30 minutes

2 tbsp melted butter

4 oz. cream cheese

Black Pepper to taste

For the Roasted Garlic Puree:

1 garlic bulb

2 tbsp olive oil

Salt and pepper

For the Stuffing:

1/2 cup whole masoor dal, cooked

1 stalk of celery, diced

1/2 carrot, diced

1/2 onion, diced

5 mushrooms, diced

1/2 cup milk

1 cup breadcrumbs

1 tsp Italian seasoning

1 tsp garlic paste

Salt and pepper to taste

Fried onions for garnish

1. Boil the potatoes in cold water for about 30 minutes.

2. Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Chop off the top of the garlic bulb. Coat the outside with olive oil, salt and pepper. Wrap the whole bulb in aluminum foil. Bake for about 30 minutes. Let cool before unwrapping.

3. Soak the breadcrumbs in the milk and stir until the milk is absorbed into the bread. Add Italian seasoning and keep to side.

4. When potatoes are done, let cool. Then peel and mash with masher or use a ricer. Add the melted butter, cream cheese, salt and pepper and mix together. For the final touch, squeeze out the garlic puree from the roasted bulb. Mix together and keep aside.

5. Heat olive oil in pot. Add the onions, celery and carrots and sautee for about 5 minutes. Then add the garlic paste and mushrooms and cook for 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Remove from heat and mix in the cooked lentils and breadcrumb mixture.

6. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Spray casserole dish with cooking spray. Spread the lentil mixture as the bottom layer. Top with the garlic mashed potatoes and smooth it out until even. Bake for 30 minutes.

I tried to make the fried onions at home. I thinly sliced 1/2 onion. Melted 2 tbsp butter in a skillet. Added the onions, stirred until all of the onions were covered with butter. I cooked them until they were crisp, about 5-7 minutes. They ended up burning, though, so they did not make it on top as a garnish (not because I overcooked them). The one thing I did wrong was that I kept them in the skillet, on top of the heated oven. I should have removed them into a bowl to cool. Oh well ...

We loved the pie so much that we ate it for lunch and dinner. I might try the spaghetti squash eventually, but we thought the pie tasted fine just like this. We even talked about making a desi version using a samosa filling or a pav bhaji version. Although the pictures do not really do the final product justice, here's a final look.