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My Shepherdess Pie

ByCordelia

Ray really loves Shepherd’s Pie and Shepherdess Pie. In light of this, and our dietary restrictions, I set out to make Shepherdess Pie for dinner. I looked at many different recipes before making my own. When I make this again, there are several things I will tweak. I should point out that we tend to eat vegetarian in my household most of the time.

 

Ingredients:
Red potatoes (I used 1 bag)
Pacific Natural Foods Savory Winter Squash Soup
College Inn Chicken Broth
2 cans sliced carrots (low sodium or no salt added)
1 can petite peas (low sodium or no salt added)
1 can regular peas (low sodium or no salt added)
2 cans french style string beans (low sodium or no salt added)
2 cans butter beans (low sodium or no salt added)
1 can black beans (low sodium or no salt added)
4 tablespoons corn starch
2 tablespoons Earth Balance butter
Sea Salt

Preheat your oven to 400.

Red potatoes:
1. Boil the red potatoes.
2. Drain the potatoes.
3. Mash the potatoes until they’re lumpy.
4. Add 1 cup of chicken broth to the potatoes.
5. Using a hand mixer, blend the potatoes.
6. Add 2 tablespoons of Earth Balance butter
7. Blend the potatoes more.
8. Hand grind some sea salt for the potatoes and blend.

For the veggies, I used canned this time, but next time I’m using either frozen or fresh. If you use fresh or frozen, you’ll want to steam the veggies first.
Veggies:
1. Drain the cans of veggies and put the veggies into a bowl.
2. Rinse the veggies to remove any residue.

Veggie Sauce:
1. Blend 4 cups of soup with 4 tablespoons of corn starch.

Put the pie together:
1. Put the veggies into your baking dish.

2. Pour the sauce over your veggies, making sure to coat the veggies, but you don’t want it to be like a soup and float away. Mine had too much liquid (I’d added a cup of chicken broth because I thought I wouldn’t have enough), and I should have just stopped pouring.

3. Take the mashed potatoes and apply them as a thin layer, completely covering all of the veggies.

4. Bake for 35 minutes or until brown.
5. Let cool for 10 minutes and serve.

When I next make this, I’ll probably use something other than butter beans, but I’m not sure what. I liked the black beans but I’m glad I only used one can. Fresh or frozen green beans and peas will make it much tastier. I’ll use less liquid, because 5 cups was too much. I have the feeling 3 or 4 would have been perfect. I must admit that eating it the next day the consistency was perfect. Incidentally that tends to be how I love my lasagna too. I always think lasagna is better the next day.

As far as dietary restrictions go, when cooking for the household I have to keep in mind the following:
Soy/Tofu*, raw garlic, bell peppers, white potatoes, white onions, and pork

*On the note of soy, the fact that everyone in my household is allergic to soy sucks. I love tofu.

Would you eat something like this? What would you suggest to substitute for butter beans?

Cordelia Frost is the creative force behind Phyrra, a treasure trove for cruelty-free indie and goth makeup enthusiasts. She's the author of the game-changing 'Hooded Eyes Makeup Manual' a must-read for hooded eyes makeup.

Cordelia's world is a kaleidoscope of alternative beauty, gothic fashion, and life-enhancing tips, making every visit to Phyrra a journey into a more colorful and inspired self.

26 Comments

  1. YUM!!! This is something I can eat!! I would just substitute the chicken broth for veggie broth to make it vegetarian but other than that, it looks great. I am allergic to soy. It sucks since that means pretty much anything in the grocery store that is premade is off limits – no bakery, cookies, frozen meals, box meals, etc. since there is always some kind of hydrogenated vegetable oil, soy bean, soy flour, soy protein, etc and a new I just saw in a baked good the other day: soy grits! REALLY?!

    Anyway, if you’re not aware: I know you’re a sushi fan like I am and sushi without soy sauce is not as good to me. Coconut Secret makes a soy sauce substitute that isn’t as good as the real thing but it’s way better than nothing and works well for me.

    I’m definitely going to try your recipe or an exact recipe of this. I have so many tum issues that it is hard to find things to eat but this will work! Tonight, it is a veggie/bulgur wheat stuffed homegrown cabbage recipe we found online that is amazing. Somehow I can eat that kind of wheat but not others like refined/bleached and whole wheat pasta.

    1. We eat seitan (wheat protein), rice pasta, etc. Yeah I have to watch it a lot. A TINY amount of soy won’t make me sick. But it’s usually best to just avoid it for me. I miss soy sauce, but it’s better than having tummy issues. I’m glad you liked the recipe 🙂 This is what I come up with when I’m trying to please everyone in my household. I LOVE mushrooms but Dave hates them.

  2. As a meat substitute, I would probably opt for portobello mushrooms (the big ones) or eggplant. Both should be sliced thick so they don’t shrivel into nothingness when baking. Also, I think you could leave out the beans entirely (except for the frozen peas & string beans) and add either green spinach (raw) or lightly blanched or stirfried kale. Both would up your nutrients without adding too much bulk.

  3. I might have to give this recipe a try – I really like shepherds pie, but lately I’ve been getting grossed out by a lot of meat and ground meat especially grosses me out *gag* So this is cool that you found a veggie version! Since you really like lasagna, is there a veggie version that you you really like? – I’ve tried finding them online but not alot of luck and I like red sauce – all I could find mostly was white sauce ones :/

    on the subject of beans – someone posted a suggestion of chick peas which sounds good, or how about possibly navy beans or lima beans or white northern beans? Kidney beans might be good too, even. I love those.

    1. Yep! We have a veggie version we make. I don’t tend to like or eat meat lasagna. On the stovetop, sautee yellow onions, mushrooms, chickpeas and kidney beans. Wilt some spinach. Mix all of this together with stewed tomatoes (or pasta sauce if you don’t want to use stewed tomatoes). Then use this as the sauce for the lasagna. Layer the sauce, then the pasta noodle, then ricotta cheese (you can do a light sprinkle of mozarella, too), then sauce, then noodle, etc until your pan is full. Then bake it for 45 minutes or until golden brown.

  4. OMG YES I can see our family gobbling this down (my kids, thank goodness, LOVE to eat healthy). Looks like I’m printing out another Phyrra recipe 😉

    I’ve never heard of Shepherdess Pie before tho (just Shepherds).

    What about forgetting about the butter beans and use mushrooms? I am such a ‘shroom fan (hush). Button mushrooms, or some tiny exotics would add the same texture (and are a pretty good sub for meat as well). Or maybe fava beans and a nice Chianti (lol couldn’t resist).

    With all of my son’s food allergies (egg, dairy, nuts, shellfish) I am so glad he’s not allergic to soy. It is really in almost everything as I’m sure you’re well aware.

    1. Ok so tonight we had Modified Phyrra’s Shepherd/ess pie….

      Added chicken, used butternut squash soup (couldn’t find the other), added garlic, used white potatoes, but forgot beans and mushrooms.

      And the household GOBBLED IT DOWN–my son *loved* it so much, he said “holy crap this is good!” To which I reminded him he wasn’t allowed to say that 😉 but that IS high praise! lol I do so love having kids that love food, all types!

      Thanks so much for posting this recipe–you rock m’dear 🙂 Is there anything you’re not good at? 😀

  5. I don’t like lima (butter) beans, either. What about black-eyed peas or pinto beans? If you sauteed the garlic and red onion in the Earth Balance butter, those add a lot of flavor. Do you eat dairy? Some dabs of goat cheese would be tasty. Does look good, though – well done!

    1. I eat dairy 🙂 I need to try black-eyed peas with it. Thanks for the suggestion 🙂

  6. Nice! my guy being from Ireland loves Shep Pie, but now he’s vegetarian.. so we just use the morningstar crumbles in some pasta sauce and use that as a base (with some random veggies) and mashed potatoes and cheese to top it off.. i usually have to have it with some A1 Sauce or sour cream as an extra ooph, he uses ketchup though on his 🙂

    1. I’ll have to look for morning star crumbles! We’ve sort of made our own black bean and rice balls for spaghetti and meatballs, and it crumbles up pretty nicely in the spagetti for a ‘meat’ sauce.

  7. I’ve never heard of Shepherdess pie, it looks good! That’s an interesting baking dish you have, I like the handles.
    Oh, man soy allergy sucks almost as bad as gluten intolerance. If you have Field Roast brand in your area, they are soy-free and delicious.
    Thanks for sharing your recipe!

    1. Thank you! It’s a Rachel Ray baking dish that I bought for lasagna and shepherdess pies 🙂

      I’ll have to check for Field Roast.

      You’re welcome 🙂

  8. This looks seriously delicious! Thanks for sharing. I think i might try to make this since I’m a broke student and I keep running out of ideas for meals, especially ones that include a lot of wholesome food (…I made ramen in a measuring cup last night @_o).

    1. You can always add 1 sunny side up or over easy or however you like your egg to ramen to up the nutritional value 🙂

  9. Looks awesome! Good job on making an awesome dinner while taking into consideration the dietary restrictions!

    1. The list of food allergies in my household is crazy – 1 person doesn’t like mushrooms or fish. All 3 of us are allergic to soy. I’ve got food intolerance with all bell peppers (though I typically just say allergy because people seem to understand allergy and not understand intolerance. If I’m sick in the bathroom for 2 to 8 hours and in pain, it’s miserable). 1 person is allergic to raw garlic, 2 people are allergic to milk, 1 person is allergic to wheat, corn, peanut, pork, white onion, white potato and watermelon. I’m still confused as to how one can be allergic to wheat, but not celiac, but that’s what the dr said. CRAZY allergies!

  10. love Shepherds/Shepherdess pie! I use sweet potatoes instead of regular thought, we don’t eat white potatoes. I’ll definitely try your recipe, sounds yummy.

    1. We don’t do white potatoes because Ray is allergic to those (and white onions too). We tend to use yellow or red. I LOVE sweet potatoes and that sounds like a great alternative!

  11. Yum! I’ve been a vegetarian for years and have lots of tweaked recipes. I really like yours, but I’d probably put peppers or mushrooms instead of beans. And I love chickpeas in soups and stews (which being from Madrid is kind of mandatory) but like the beans I thing they may be a little heavy for some people in my family -.- If I do this and want everyone to try it I may even have to remove the green beans and peas. And add a layer of thin pastry to the baking dish,
    Phyrra, congrats and enjoy!

    1. I’m unfortunately allergic to all bell peppers. I do love mushrooms, but Dave won’t eat them (which makes me a sad panda).

      I always love checking out recipes and modifying them! It’s fun to try new things.

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