Vegetarian Shepherd's Pie

I'm not doing a very good job of updating my blog (and reading blogs) right now! School, work and life are definitely keeping me busy. Oh and I got engaged so now add wedding planning into the mix! =)

I don't think I've ever had regular shepherd's pie - things with ground beef never appealed to me when I used to eat meat. And as a vegetarian, the fake veggie ground round version of shepherd's pie never sounded too great either. Then I came across this recipe for shepherd's pie in my beloved The New Enchanted Broccoli Forest. It has no ground round/fake meat products and instead (as the recipe says) is "a vegetable hash on the bottom, and garlicky mashed potatoes on top". What's not to love about that? I was expecting it to keep together better (bind better) but it all kind of mooshed around. Which was fine and delicious. This shepherd's pie is like mashed potatoes with lots of vegetables and a sort of vegetable gravy. I don't imagine it's very authentic but it was good and that is, of course, the important thing!

Here's Abby playing with one of her new toys. Sadly she's already broken the string! She really loved this one.

If this sounds good, you might also like:
Frijoles, Etc. Casserole
Chayote and Corn Enchiladas
Fresh Pear and Curry Pasta
Artichoke Rotini Pasta

Vegetarian Shepherd's Pie
Adapted from The New Enchanted Broccoli Forest

Mashed potato topping (Make this first):
2 large potatoes
1 tbsp butter (or oil)
1/2 cup milk
3 large cloves garlic, minced
salt & pepper, to taste
1/2 cup minced fresh parsley

Vegetable Hash:
1 tbsp oil
1 1/2 cups minced onions
4 large cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp salt
fresh black pepper to taste
1 stalk celery, finely minced
1 lb mushrooms, chopped
1 lb zucchini, diced
1 medium bell pepper, minced
2 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1 cup peas (fresh or frozen)
3/4 cup grated cheddar cheese (leave out to make vegan)
cayenne to taste
paprika

Make the mashed potato topping:

Peel or scrub the potatoes, and cut them into 1 inch chunks. Cook in plenty of boiling water until soft. Drain and transfer to a medium-large bowl. Add butter, garlic, and milk, and mash well. Add salt and black pepper to taste, and stir in the parsley. Set aside.

Make the vegetable hash (and assembly):

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Have ready a 2 quart casserole or its equivalent (ex. a 9x13 baking pan).

2. Heat the oil in a large, deep skillet or a Dutch oven. Add the onion, and saute over medium heat for about 5 minutes, or until it begins to soften.

3. Add garlic, salt, pepper, celery, mushrooms, zucchini, and bell pepper. Stir until well combined, cover, and cook over medium heat for about 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Add the herbs, stir, and cover again. Cook for about 5 more minutes, or until the zucchini is perfectly tender. Remove from heat.

4. Stir in the peas and cheese. Add cayenne to taste. Transfer this mixture to the casserole or baking pan, and spread it out.

5. Spoon and./or spread the mashed potatoes over the vegetables. Dust generously with paprika.

6. Bake uncovered for 25 to 30 minutes, or until lightly browned on top and bubbly around the edges.

Salad Challenge Day 2 & 3 - The Diva Salad

Last night's salad was called the "diva salad" and I found the recipe in Fresh at Home. I've only made a few things from this cookbook but I think with its salads, noodle dishes, rice bowls and other delicious healthy things it will fast become a favourite. The diva had romaine lettuce, potato wedges (you're supposed to roast the potato yourself but we have these yummy frozen seasoned ones so just used those), capers, sun dried tomatoes, red onion, avocado and creamy dill dressing - with another piece of jalapeno cheddar cornbread. I was really interested in the creamy dill dressing because it uses firm tofu, onions, dill, garlic, dijon, vinegar and some oil. It was pretty good and something different, and I loved that the dressing contains so much protein (because of the tofu). But it was impossible (at least with my food processor) to get a smooth non lumpy dressing. It was kind of like ricotta. This salad was really filling and very satisfying.

Tonight's salad used up last night's creamy dill dressing. We used romaine and red leaf lettuce, red bell pepper, olives, red onion, green onions, feta, and homemade garlic oregano bread crumbs. The bread crumbs were super delicious and definitely were an integral part of the salad!

The Diva Salad
Adapted from Fresh at Home

As I mentioned, we used some frozen seasoned potato wedges. But I'll write out the recipe as is. Next time I'll add more capers, more onion, and cut the sun dried tomatoes into bigger pieces because I couldn't really taste them.
Serves 2

8 frozen potato wedges (or make your own potato wedges)
6 cups mixed lettuce greens
2 tbsp capers, drained
1/2 batch Creamy Dill Dressing (recipe below)
6 sun dried tomatoes, rehydrated if dried, sliced thinly
2 thin slices red onion
1 ripe avocado, sliced

Salad
1. Toss lettuce greens and capers with creamy dill dressing. (I didn't do this and realized afterwards that I really should have.) Divide between 2 salad bowls.

2. Top with sun dried tomatoes, red onion and avocado.

3. Arrange potato wedges vertically around edges of salad and serve.

Creamy Dill Dressing
Adapted from Fresh at Home

3 tbsp + 1 tsp olive oil
1 cooking onion, diced
3 cloves garlic
2 cups chopped firm tofu (1 package)
1 tbsp dried dillweed
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 tsp dijon mustard (Ashley note: I love mustard so I'd add more next time.)
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
filtered water (optional)

1. Heat 1 tsp of oil in a skillet over medium heat.

2. Saute the onion and garlic for 5 minutes or until softened. Set aside and let cool.

3. Put onion/garlic mixture, remaining olive oil, tofu, dillweed, salt, mustard and vinegar in a blender and process until smooth. Add water if needed for a smooth consistency.

Maple Mustard Glazed Potatoes and String Beans

I think I've mentioned before about how I rarely cook potatoes because I find them to be void of much nutritional value and they just fill you up. I'd rather eat sweet potatoes or whole wheat pasta or something else. But my boyfriend loves loves potatoes so sometimes I have to be nice right? Well these potatoes turned out to be extremely delicious and perfect and we've already made them twice (which is saying a lot to have made them twice before I even post about them given how I usually like to try new recipes). My boyfriend said the potatoes were like the ones you get at Korean restaurants (though I've never been so don't know). I just know that the maple-garlic-Dijon dressing is super tasty. The second time we made them the potatoes weren't cooked enough because we cut them too big, so make sure that they're 1 inch pieces. Oh and this is super easy to make.

Edit: Okay so it was my belief that potatoes aren't that healthy for various reasons, but as Daily Spud pointed out, they do have some good attributes so I thought I'd just point those out. This information is for a baked (not boiled) with skin potato found on this Nutrition Facts website. Of your daily requirements, a baked potato gives you 48% of your Vitamin C, 46% of your potassium, 21% of your folate, 18% of your iron.. and the list goes on. Check it out. Plus potatoes apparently have more fibre than pasta (mind you I think they're comparing this to white pasta). Thanks Daily Spud for spurring me to look into this further!

If this sounds good, you might also like:
Pasta with Pesto, New Potatoes and Green Beans
Warm Vegetable Salad with Sesame-Maple Dressing
French Barley Salad
Santa Fe Pasta Salad

Maple Mustard Glazed Potatoes and String Beans
Adapted from Vegan with a Vengeance

2 pounds small Yukon gold potatoes, halved (about 1 inch pieces)
1/2 pound string beans, halved, ends cut off and discarded
1 yellow onion, thickly sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon olive oil

Preheat oven to 400F.

Place the vegetables in a 9x13 inch casserole dish. In a mixing bowl, stir together all the other ingredients until the mustard is dissolved. Pour over the vegetables and mix until everything is coated. Cover with foil and place in oven. Bake for 25 minutes. Remove from oven and toss everything; use a spoon to drip the sauce over the veggies. Turn oven down to 350F, and cook for 25 minutes uncovered. Remove from oven, toss again, cook for 25 more minutes uncovered.

Choklay's Tibetan Lentil Soup

I'm submitting this soup to Food Blogga's Beautiful Bones event. Since May is Osteoporosis Awareness and Prevention Month, Susan is hosting this event to promote awareness about osteoporosis. Check out her post which mentions the risk factors and many examples of calcium rich foods. I had no idea that tomatoes and spices have calcium! Anyway, the calcium rich foods my soup has are lentils, carrots, tomatoes, garlic, and potatoes.

This soup is good, filling, healthy and I plan to make it again! The flavour combination of cumin, coriander and lentils was really good. For a while now, I've been really hooked on red split lentils (which cook really fast and are so delicious). I haven't ventured out and tried many other types of lentils though, which I should.

Other soups I've made:
Baked Bean Soup
Corn Chowder
Sweet Potato and Black Bean Chili

Choklay's Tibetan Lentil Soup
Adapted from Moosewood Restaurant Daily Special

1 1/2 cups dried red split lentils, rinsed
6 cups water
1 tsp oil
1 1/2 cups chopped onions
2 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
1 fresh chile, seeded and finely minced
1 carrot, peeled and diced into 1/2 inch cubes
1 potato, diced into 1/2 inch cubes
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
3 cups (28 oz can) undrained canned chopped tomatoes
3/4 tsp salt

In a nonreactive soup pot, bring the lentils and water to a boil; then reduce the heat, cover, and simmer until tender, about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat the oil in a medium saucepan and saute the onions, garlic, and chile for 5 minutes. Add the carrots, potatoes, coriander and cumin and saute for another minute, stirring to prevent sticking. Remove from the heat and set aside.

When the lentils are tender, stir the canned tomatoes into the soup pot. Add the salt and sauteed vegetables. Cover and simmer for 10 to 12 minutes, until all of the vegetables are tender. If you like, take 2 cups of the soup out and puree them, then add back to the soup.

Daring Baker's Challenge - Potato Bread

My second Daring Bakers' challenge! And I don't know that I'll ever make bread again. Well I'm sure one day I'll feel ready to give it another shot, but not for a long while. Anyway, I was a bit disappointed to find out that this month's challenge was savory as I really love making sweet things. But it was also a really great challenge for me because it was a real challenge. It pushed me to make something that I love but have never tried making (potato bread specifically but I've always wanted to try making bread).

I made one large loaf and 8 rolls, a few with cheese. I forgot to put the cheese on the rolls before putting them in the oven so had to grab them back out. Then regretted baking the rolls on my Silpat as I didn't want to clean melted cheese off it. I also forgot to slash my loaf before putting it in the oven so I took it out after a few minutes and did that - unsure at the time if I had messed it up as the loaf seemed to already be developing a bit of a crust. The slashed part turned out fine though, and I love how it looked.

I must've been doing something wrong because I was kneading the dough for a good 20 minutes at least. My mom and brother said that seemed like a long time, but it said to knead for 10 minutes, then add the flour 1/4 cup at a time, which means more kneading. The dough was so sticky for most of that first 10 minutes and I really extremely hated that. Is there anything I can do to avoid that? How can you even knead the dough when it's constantly sticking to your hands? Keep flouring up your hands? I ended up using about 6 1/2 cups of flour (the minimum amount) because I was scared of using too much (since it said beginners always use too much flour). And holy crap my forearms got so insanely sore from kneading for so long. I have never had such sore forearms. I must be doing it all wrong (very possible). But I'm sure it didn't help that I was kneading on a flimsy plastic cutting board that kept sliding around.

I must admit that once I smelled the potato bread/rolls baking, and saw them brown it made me really happy and excited. Not excited enough to be making bread again anytime soon though. As for how it tasted - for me, just okay. Apparently my niece really liked it though. I cooked the buns too long and they were pretty chewy unless microwaved. The loaf was soft in the middle, but didn't taste like anything special. To me this bread tasted just like regular white bread. And not very good white bread at that. I didn't taste or notice that the potato had been added (though that could be because I misread the recipe to mean only use 8 ounces of potato total, or maybe that was what I was supposed to do). I don't fault the recipe for how the bread turned out though. I'm sure many of the other Daring Bakers had beautiful delicious loaves and variations that I will be coveting.

Overall, I guess it was a successful enough first bread making experience. It was edible and not rock hard, though when I took the loaf out of the pan to cool it felt like it could be used as a weapon since the exterior was hard and it was so heavy. Throughout the bread making experience I kept thinking to myself, it's okay if it doesn't turn out, it doesn't have to, I'm challenging myself. That helped to make the pressure off my perfectionist self. I am glad that I participated in this challenge, despite all my whining! And I can't wait to find out what the next challenge is.

Check out all the other yummy potato breads made by other Daring Bakers. The recipe is on Tanna's site My Kitchen In Half Cups. Tanna did some amazing things with this bread that I can only aspire to be able to do with bread one day.

Pasta with Pesto, New Potatoes and Green Beans

I was with my mom at Costco a few weeks ago and convinced her to pick up Everyday Food: Great Food Fast, which is a collection of recipes from Martha Stewart's Everyday Food magazines. Well she didn't actually need a lot of convincing once she saw all the beautiful photos (one photo for each recipe) and yummy recipes that aren't incredibly time conusming. I'm biased against cookbooks with tons of photos because it seems like the cookbooks with only a few photos are the ones that have the best recipes. (While the ones full of photos sucker you in so easily without necessarily having quality recipes.) That is likely a very incorrect statement but for some reason that's what's stuck in my head. Anyway, I subscribe to the Everyday Food magazine so I'm sure I have lots of the recipes but it's also nice to have all the 'best' ones in one book with an index. The Everyday Food magazine is not super vegetarian friendly, but there are lots of baked goods, some vegetarian meals, ways to cook vegetables, salads, side dishes, and some meat dishes where you could replace the meat with tofu. Mostly I love the magazine because of the photos though.

My boyfriend and I decided to make pasta with pesto, new potatoes and green beans. I love pesto, pasta and new potatoes, and have recently come to like green beans, which I previously hated. Ever since I tried this insanely delicious green bean dish at a Chinese restaurant, I've been wanting to eat green beans more often. I'd recommend making sure you have lots of pesto, because I didn't find there was enough when we had it. Mind you I didn't actually measure the pesto when I added it, and just used up the amount that I had made (which I also don't think I added enough basil to). I think adding pine nuts or maybe walnuts would be a good addition to the pasta, and would add protein. It was so incredibly easy to make, and if you already have the pesto made (or are using store bought pesto) then it's a one pot meal. Boil water, add potatoes, add pasta, add green beans, drain and add pesto. And it's a healthy dish too - did you know potatoes are a source of vitamin C?

Edit: As my friend pointed out, potatoes do lose some of their nutrients when boiled, so if you bake or boil them in their skins they will retain more vitamin C. In this recipe, I cut up the potatoes and boiled them in water. This method of cooking them is definitely not the way to get all the vitamin C that you can out of them. You could always bake the potatoes separately, cut them up and then add them to your pasta. A serving of baked or boiled potato with the skin has more vitamin C than an apple (20mg vs 9mg). I found another website that claimed potatoes have 25mg vitamin C, and that one baked potato can give you 45% of your recommended daily vitamin C. To find out more about the amounts of vitamins, minerals, proteins, and fiber in fruits and vegetables, check out this website.

Pasta with Pesto, New Potatoes and Green Beans
(adapted from Everyday Food: Great Food Fast)

Serves 3

10 new potatoes*
coarse salt & fresh ground pepper
8 ounces whole wheat rotini (or cavatappi or fusilli)
8 ounces green beans, trimmed and halved
1/2 cup pesto

1. Scrub potatoes then cut them into 1-inch cubes; place in a large pot of water and bring to a boil.

2. Add 1 tablespoon salt and the rotini; return to a boil and cook for 3 minutes.**

3. Add the green beans. Return to a boil; cook until the vegetables are tender (1.5-2 minutes) and the pasta is al dente.

4. Drain; toss with the pesto and season with salt and pepper. Serve warm or at room temperature.

*Original recipe calls for 2 waxy potatoes.
**I cooked the pasta for an extra minute because whole wheat pasta seems to take a bit longer to cook than regular pasta.