Day 52: Shepherd’s Pot Pie

Yield: 1 casserole (serves 4)
Time (Start to Finish): 45 min

Ingredients:
2 cups potatoes
1 cup mozzarella, shredded
half and half (about ½ cup)
garlic salt

1 can corn kernels
1 ½ cup broccoli
2 cups fresh spinach
1 med carrot

1 stick butter
½ cup flour
2 ½ cups vegetable broth
salt and pepper
garlic salt


Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350F
2. Skin and boil potatoes until tender, and put them through a ricer or mash them with a potato masher
3. Add the mozzarella, garlic salt, and half and half until they are creamy, spreadable, and taste delicious!
4. In a separate pot, melt the butter and once melted add the flour, salt and pepper
5. Whisk until smooth and cook for about a minute.
6. Slowly add vegetable stock while whisking and put on med until it thickens to the thickness of yummy gravy (about 3 min)
7. Add to the gravy mixture the corn, broccoli, spinach and carrot (unskinned). Make sure all are cut into bite sized pieces
8. When it is all together, cook for a few min until nice and thick.
9. Pour into a casserole dish, making sure to leave about an inch at the top. I had a little extra so I put it in little ramekins.
10. Spread the mashed potatoes on top as best you can. Mine was kinda more like clumpy biscuits, but its ok!
11. Bake in oven about 10 min until warm all the way through. This gives the veges a chance to cook a little!

Rating: 4 strawberries
Notes: So this is a mix between a chicken pot pie which uses a thick chicken stew and a biscuit crust on top and a shepherds pie which is a meat pie with mashed potatoes on top. It is also a vegetarian dish, so that is a nice twist. I have been wanting to make this for awhile, and it actually took a lot of motivation to get me up to make it (a little sleepy this afternoon after the best hike in marin ever…listened to pink floyd for an hour on a rock in the middle of a peopleless redwood forest). I was going to just not cook this, but when I ended up getting up and doing it, it took NO TIME at all, and I was back in the same spot on the couch with a warm treat in my hand. A great cold weather dish, and a great lazy day hand warmer. I would maybe cook the carrots and broccoli a little before...they were a little crunchy, but other than that it is so flavorful and just a great meal after a great day.