Not Yo Mama's Shepard Pie

Shepard's pie takes me back to the days that I was a "little Dan" and sitting out the table with my family enjoying a home cooked meal, courtesy of my mom. Being vegetarian does not mean that I have to miss out on these things or that I have to always substitute soy/quorn/seitan if I want to enjoy these foods. Vegetables are not only a fine substitute, but could be considered a preferred alternative. I will always have a special place for my mom's cooking and now I have adapted her recipes to make them my own.

"Meat" Filling

• 1TB safflower oil
• 1-2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 8oz baby bella mushrooms, diced
• 1 carrot, chopped
• ground sage
• 1c cooked lentils (optional)
• 1 tomato, chopped
• i jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped (optional)

"Creamed" Corn

•  2 ears of corn, washed and kernals removed
• 1 small yellow squash, diced
• 1TB apricot preserves
• salt and pepper to taste

 Top Layer

• 1/2 head of cauliflower, coarse chopped
• 2 large parsnips, peeled and coarse chopped
• 1-2TB almond milk
• Paprika

How it's Made...

1. Preheat oven to 350. Place cauliflower and parsnips in medium pan with a thin layer of water, cover and heat over medium heat for 15 minutes.
2. In another frying pan, heat safflower oil over medium heat, add carrots and cook until almost tender then add mushrooms, garlic and sage.
3.  Continue to cook until mushrooms are soft then add cooked lentils and tomato. When the tomatoes start to break down, add pepper and continue to cook until most of the liquid is gone (about 10-15 minutes). Place this is the bottom of eight 1c ramekins.
4. Once cauliflower and parsnips are done cooking, drain most of the water and whip until smooth with a little almond milk (you can use soy butter too). Then set aside. 
5. Heat corn over medium heat with a little salt. When corn begins to break down, add preserves and continue to cook until "creamy." Place this over the mushroom layer.
6. Top ramekins with cauliflower mixture and sprinkle with paprika [just like mom used to do :-) ].
7. Bake for 25 minutes- I placed mine on the top rack so that the top layer got a bit of crunch. 

This was an awesome recipe and the ramekins make it perfect for portion control and to brink leftovers for lunch. Feel free to play around and add other vegetables and let me know how it worked out with you. For those of you whom are not vegetarian/vegan, I would absolutely recommend adding a little goat butter to the top layer.

Hope you enjoy!