Vegetable-Filled 'Shepherd’s Pie’ Recipe

Every week, we’re spotlighting a different food blogger who’s shaking up the blogosphere with tempting recipes and knockout photography. Below, Laura Wright of The First Mess turns traditional shepherd’s pie on its head, swapping out the standard beef for brightly-colored beets and other vegetables.

Photo: Laura Wright

Garden Keeper’s Pie
Serves 4

I planted a lot of things this year, all successful in some way or another. Among them are celery roots, which look like baby aliens, but taste like absolute heaven. Creamily textured, sweet, kinda grassy like parsley, and, yes, celery-like. But mine were so small! Nothing at all like those big, knubby, market ones. But I still managed to scrounge up just enough for two dinners’ worth.

One night, I served clouds of puréed celery root on top of these little pies—garden keeper’s pies, as I’m calling them. I diced beets, carrots, and butternut squash and slowly cooked them down with black lentils, vegetable stock, garlic, and rosemary. Small additions of balsamic vinegar and tamari rounded the flavors out—the result ever-so-slightly reminded me of borscht. I much prefer the smoothed-out celery root to shepherd’s pie’s more traditional potato topping, too. It’s a bit more interesting and light, but comforting and familiar all the same.

The measures in the recipe below are rough, but this isn’t a fussy endeavor by any means. You’re just making one big sauté, thickening it with arrowroot, topping it with a rustic mash and baking it until the whole thing bubbles and browns.

For the filling:
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 cooking onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
Leaves of 1 sprig of rosemary, minced
Leaves of 4 sprigs of thyme, roughly broken up
Pinch of chili flakes (optional)
2 tsp. balsamic vinegar
5 cups-worth of small diced, hardy vegetables (I used a mix of butternut squash, carrots, and beets)
1/3 cup black or french lentils, rinsed
2 1/2 cups vegetable stock
1 tsp. tamari soy sauce
Salt and pepper, to taste
2 tsp. arrowroot powder
1 tbsp. cold filtered water

For the celery root mash:
3 cups celery root, peeled and 1-inch-diced
2 cloves of garlic, peeled
1 1/2 tbsp. olive oil, plus more as needed
1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk
Salt and pepper, to taste

Preheat the oven to 400° F. Lightly oil 4 ramekins/cocottes/mini gratin dishes with at least 8 oz/1 cup capacity. Place dishes on a sheet pan and set aside.

Make the filling: Heat the 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the diced onion and sauté until very, very soft, about 5 minutes, stirring often. Add the minced garlic, rosemary, thyme, and chili flakes (if using) to the pot and stir. Sauté until the garlic is very fragrant, about 45 seconds. Add the balsamic vinegar and stir. Add the 5 cups of diced vegetables and the lentils to the pot and stir to coat everything in with oil. Season heartily with salt and pepper. Sauté the vegetables and lentils another two minutes or so, stirring often.

Add the vegetable stock and tamari and stir. The liquid should cover all the vegetables and lentils nicely, by about a half inch. Bring the mixture to a boil and then simmer until the vegetables are tender and the lentils are just soft, about 45 minutes. It helps if you place a lid on top of the pot slightly askew, leaving a little gap for air to escape.

When the filling is done, in a small bowl mix together the arrowroot powder and cold water. Scrape this slurry into the pot with the filling and stir to mix it in. Remove the pot from the heat.

For the celery root mash, place the diced celery root and garlic cloves in a medium saucepan. Cover the vegetables with cold water, and then place the pot over medium heat. Bring the mixture to a boil and then simmer until the celery root pieces are tender, about 15 minutes. Drain the celery root and garlic, and place it in a food processor fitted with the “S” blade. Pulse the vegetables a couple times to get them moving. Add the olive oil, unsweetened almond milk, and some salt and pepper. Run the motor on high until you have a creamy, homogenous mixture. Check for seasoning and adjust if necessary.

Divide the filling amongst the 4 oiled dishes. Then, divide the celery root mash among the tops of the 4 dishes, smoothing it out with a butter knife or spatula. Drizzle a bit of olive oil on top of each pie and sprinkle with salt, pepper, and thyme leaves. Place the assembled pies back on the baking sheet and slide into the oven. Bake the pies until the filling is bubbling and the tops are very lightly browned, about 20 minutes.

More hearty pies to love:

A classic shepherd’s pie that won’t weigh you down

A warming cottage pie with unctuous ground beef

Down-home cornbread and chili pie

What’s your favorite interpretation of shepherd’s pie? Tell us below!