Last week I was away from home for a few days on business, staying in an hotel. Why is it that hotel food seems to concentrate entirely on meat and omit vegetables altogether? In the hotel scenario, vegetables are at best an afterthought - a garnish, or something you have "with" your meal. When I got home I was seriously craving for veg, so I decided to make a meat-free meal with as many veg as I could muster...
"I need a mega veg-fest", I said. "That's OK" said Jane, "have a look in the fridge..." While I had been away our latest veg-box had been delivered, and with me having been away half of the previous week's box was still available too. We had carrots, parsnips, Swede turnip, squash, cabbage, broccoli, peppers, tomatoes, mushrooms, celeriac, artichokes.... etc!
My chosen dish (whose name I invented, btw) gradually evolved into this Gardener's Pie thing. It's similar to a Shepherd's Pie, except that the meat is replaced with vegetables, and I enhanced the mashed potato topping with the inclusion of cheese and parsley.
This is how I did it: (I'm deliberately not mentioning quantities. Adjust these to suit your own requirements!)
- I prepared a huge quantity of veg: carrots, celeriac, parsnips, Swede, squash, broccoli, mushrooms, onions, garlic.
- Cooked the onions in a little oil, until soft and translucent, but not brown
- Added the veg to the pan, along with about a litre of veg stock and some fresh Thyme leaves
- Simmered the veg until just tender and then drained them, reserving the remaining stock
- Cooked some potatoes and mashed them with a little butter and milk, adding some grated Cheddar cheese and some chopped parsley
- Allowed everything to cool
- Put the cooked veg into a large ovenproof dish, and added a tub of homemade tomato sauce (from the freezer)
- Covered the veg with a thick layer of mashed potato
- Covered the potato layer with a generous amount of finely-grated Parmesan cheese
- Re-heated the dish in a medium oven for approx 30 mins
- Turned up the oven to maximum temperature for another 20 mins to brown the topping
- Served it (with some extra broccoli, just to add more colour and a different texture!)
I also used the reserved stock / cooking liquour to make a "gravy". I just added to it a little slaked cornflour and then boiled the liquid until it had reduced to the required consistency. It was surprisingly nice. Concentrated essence of vegetable!
This one is definitely joining my repertoire. Next time I do it, I may accompany it with a "garnish" of meat!Crispy bacon would go well with this, or a pork chop, or even some Black Pudding.
Looks and sounds delicious with or without meat but definitely without black pudding
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of this and a great name too! What a nice meal to come home to on an evening.
ReplyDeleteessentially a veggie shepherds pie but i'll allow you to have a gardeners pie... because it looks divine and it's genius!... you are a genius!...
ReplyDeleteThe real stroke of genius was the gravy. Mark is being far too modest when he says it was "surprisingly nice". It was wonderful!
ReplyDeleteThere you go Mark praise from the boss it doesn`t get any better.
ReplyDeleteIt looks lovely Mark, I prefer a veggie option when we dine out.
ReplyDeleteThat looks so delicious. My family wouldn't be happy without meat on their plate, but I think you've hit the nail on the head there, a pork chop with this on the other side of the plate would be perfect.
ReplyDeleteOh yes, my kind of dish and so colourful too. It reminds me of a root vegetable crumble I used to make in days gone by. A mixture of roots such as Jerusalem artichokes, Swede, parsnip, carrots and potatoes with some sort of sauce (can't remember what but would have had onions and garlic and herbs, topped with a cheese crumble. Not sure why I stopped making it, because it was delicious.
ReplyDeleteI love the fact that you eat meat but also choose to eat veggie food. Some people just can't have a meal without veg in it but often veggie meals are far more tasty. I love the look of your gardeners pie : )
ReplyDeleteWell, Mark, you might just want to start writing a cookbook! Seems you not only have gardening talents, but your recipes always are so creative and delicious looking. I will be trying this one for sure!
ReplyDeleteLooks good enough to eat Mark - perhaps another option would be cheese sauce rather than tomato?
ReplyDeleteElaine, I think cheese sauce might be a step too far - it already has Cheddar cheese in the mash and grated Parmesan on the top.
Deletethat looks fantastically delicious!
ReplyDeleteIt looks delicious. I feel the same way when I come home from traveling. I do find though that you can eat in Chinese restaurants and actually get a decent serving of veggies. My problem is they put peppers in everything and aren't very good with the issue of food problems.
ReplyDeleteDaphne, I agree entirely about Chinese restaurants and the addition of peppers. They disagree violently with me, and yet Chinese dishes almost all include them.
DeleteLooks very tasty indeed. Gardener's Pie it is!
ReplyDeleteLooks great and very handy to have when there's a glut of veg to get through!
ReplyDeleteLooks great - just the sort of warming, wholesome supper for this cold weather too. I love dishes like this that use bits and bobs up out of the garden, minestrone and risotto are my favourites too for slipping in whatever's growing.
ReplyDeleteHave you tried adding swede and parsnip to the mashed potato and cheese topping, really moreish! My children love it, a great way to hide extra veg in it! I will be trying your version, it looks great.
ReplyDeleteWe often combine swede with potato, (sometimes carrot as well) but have found that parsnip often does not mash well - it can be a bit stringy sometimes.
DeleteI think this would be a good way to use any kind of cooked meat that was left over from a previous meal. We often have small amounts of cooked chicken or ham - just chop or shred it and mix in with the cooked vegetables.
ReplyDeleteThough I must say, it looks really good just as it is!
Lea
Lea's Menagerie