I’m back to blogging with this vegetarian shepherd’s pie. If you were wondering what happened to me, I got caught up in a combination of traveling for business and a box of the most beautiful red peppers. I spent most of Sunday afternoon last week roasting, peeling and freezing the peppers, in between packing for my work trip. This weekend, however, life is back to normal.
So, to get to it – this week’s CSA share brings us to week 23 of 28. Hard to believe that we will have CSA veggies through the end of November. This week, we received parsnips, carrots, onions, Hakurei turnips, lettuce, mustard greens, parsley, and Gold Nugget squash. I used the parsnips, carrots, onions, and squash in my vegetarian shepherd’s pie. The lettuce went into a chicken salad. The turnips and mustard greens are still hanging out in the fridge. I’m saving the parsley for chicken stock.
All and all, it was a satisfying cooking weekend. I loved seeing parsnips in my CSA share – I’m a fan of the starchy sweet root veggie. I don’t think I’d ever had a parsnip before I moved to Oregon. Prior to this recipe, I’d mostly just cut them up into strips and baked them like fries. However, I thought it might be interesting to use the parsnips as the topping for vegetarian shepherd’s pie. I boiled them with a potato and mashed them up with butter and milk. So incredibly yummy!
The golden nugget squash was a lovely little orange squash. I went a different route to chop it up than I usually do. I peeled it (with a regular veggie peeler) first and then cut it into slices. It was much easier to cut and deseed this way.
I used beluga lentils for this recipe because it was what was on hand. You could use any lentil for this recipe, though – I would imagine it would be both pretty and tasty with orange lentils. This is another recipe that freezes like a dream and could certainly be made in advance for a main dish for your vegetarian friends for Thanksgiving.
Ingredients
- 3 cups cooked lentils
- 4 small parsnips
- 1 medium potato
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 small onion, diced
- 1 small winter squash, cut into small chunks
- 2 carrots, diced into small pieces
- 1/2 cup vegetable broth
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 2 tablespoons milk
- 1 tablespoon butter
Instructions
- Peel the parsnips and potato and dice into small chunks. Place in a small saucepan and cover with water. Add 1 teaspoon salt. Bring the water to a boil and reduce to a simmer. Simmer for 20 - 30 minutes or until the parsnips and potatoes are soft. Drain. Add the butter and milk and mash.
- While the parsnips and potatoes are cooking, heat the olive oil in a medium saucepan. Add the onions and cook, stirring frequently, until onions are soft and slightly brown, about 10 minutes. Add the squash, carrots, vegetable broth, and 1 teaspoon of salt. Bring the broth to a low boil and reduce to a simmer. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 20 minutes or until the vegetables are soft.
- Add the cooked lentils to the vegetables. Split the vegetables and lentils into four ramekins (or put them into a shallow baking dish). Spread the mashed parsnip/potato mixture over the top of each. Broil for 7 - 10 minutes or until the tops are lightly browned.
- Serves 4. Enjoy!
