Is it wrong to want comfort food so soon after Thanksgiving? The truth is, we just really like mashed potatoes. I made ten pounds for Thanksgiving, then bought another ten pound bag this weekend. With Shepherd's Pie, I always pile on too may taters and the filling ends up gushing over the sides. Inverting the process resolves that problem and leaves room for some tater tots. This isn't necessarily the healthiest thing that I've made, but it was sure good.
Upside Down Shepherd's Pie
6 cups mashed potatoes
1 lb tater tots (half a bag)
Filling:
3 tbs Earth Balance Margarine
1 small onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups broccoli florets
1/4 lb mushrooms, sliced
1/4 cup flour
1/2 cup frozen peas
1/2 cup frozen corn
1 can chickpeas, drained
2 cups vegetable broth
1/2 cup soy milk
2 tbs nutritional yeast
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
Melt margarine in a sauce pan. Add onion and mushrooms and saute until soft. Stir in garlic and broccoli and cook until the garlic is aromatic. Add the flour and cook, stirring constantly for a couple minutes longer. Add the remaining filling ingredients. Bring to a boil, stirring frequently and remove from heat and set aside. The sauce should have thickened a bit.
Spread mashed potatoes in a 9 x 13 casserole, spreading some of the potatoes up the sides. Pour in the gravy and veggies. Spread tater tots over the top. Bake in a preheated oven at 375 degrees for 45-60 minutes, until the tater tots are browned and the gravy is bubbly.
This can be made with any combination of veggies that you want and can be as simple as mixing a bag of frozen veggies with gravy and adding a can of beans or seitan strips. Just make sure you have five or six cups of filling. Also, I kept the nutritional yeast to a minimum at my kids' request. I ended up sprinkling some extra over the top for myself. You may just want to add some more.
6 Servings: 607 cal (18g fat, 100g carbs, 16g protein)
Bun Cha
3 days ago
OMG! That looks SOOOOOOO good.
two variations of potatoes in one dish - awesome! :)
Looks great! Hey, sometimes you just have to indulge in some comfort food - especially during the hectic holiday season.
Delicious! I've been looking for a veggie shepherd's pie for the longest time! Thank you for sharing!
My family loved it. I can't believe 18g of fat, really?! I guess it won't be a weekly meal. :-) I forgot the soy milk accidentally, but I added extra broth so it worked out fine. Thanks for sharing!
VeganLinda, I make mashed potatoes ten pounds at a time, add a stick of EB and some milk. The potatoes, made this way, have about 5g of fat per serving. The tater tots have another The EB in the sauce adds another 5g. The Tater tots add another 6g. So there's good opportunity to reduce fat.
I made this last night and it was awesome. Picky veg boyfriend and his omni roommate wolfed it down along with all the extra tatertots.
My changes: I used No-chicken broth (I had some open in the fridge), no mushrooms, and I threw in a packet of vegetarian gravy mix that I didn't use on Thanksgiving last year. It made the gravy slightly brown-- more asthetically pleasing to my picky bf. Probably can't even taste the difference though.
Delicious nontheless! Totally making it again.