I do enjoy cooking. Since this requires me to be upstairs in the kitchen, back and forth from the fridge, counter, etc on my feet – I haven’t really done much since last fall. I think the last thing I made were butternut squash raviolis last halloween.
In the Meals that Heal Inflammation book, Julie, the author, lays out 2 suggested week menu plans. As I was looking at the recipes some of them made me go ‘ehhhhhhhhh, I don’t know about that one’. So I went online, and on pinterest, and found a ton of other recipes that I can use as well. Follow my pinterest boards to see all the recipes I find!!
My first meal I did cook from the book and I went with the Shepherd’s Pie. Because I was making it for the whole family I did half of it with regular mashed potatoes and the other half with sweet potatoes (they don’t like sweet potatoes… their loss!). The recipe suggests making mashed turnip to go on top of the pie, but I need to ease into this slowly 😉 haha!
INGREDIENTS:
2 cups skinned and diced celery root
2 cups diced Jerusalem artichokes
2 cups skinned and diced turnips
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 lb ground turkey (you could use bison or 2 cups lentils)
2 cups chopped onions
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp sea salt
3 tbsp Italian herb blend (basil, marjoram, oregano, rosemary, sage, savory, and/or thyme)
1 cup chopped carrots
1 cup diced sweet potatoes or yams
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup sweet peas
2 cups fresh spinach
1/2 cup kasha (toasted buckwheat)
1/4 cup fresh sage
Vegetable broth
You can follow the rest of the recipe here :Â http://www.chatelaine.com/health/healthy-shepherds-pie-from-julie-daniluk/ (Don’t want to get in trouble with copyright laws!!)
My Modifications:
- I skipped the first 4 ingredients and instead boiled 3 sweet potatoes and mashed them up with a touch of EVOO and some salt.
- I have no clue what kasha (toasted buckwheat) is and neither did the people at Trader Joe’s. So I did not add this in my pie.
- I added a 1/4 cup fresh parsley
- It didn’t say how much veggie broth to put in so I kept dumping it in until it looked like it was enough to keep the turkey moist.
My Review:
It was a good first dish. It didn’t hold together like a normal shepherd’s pie would, but I really enjoyed the turkey, veggies and the sweet potato. This would be a great meal if you had a bunch of vegetables in your fridge you had to use- just throw them all in! I think the more the merrier.
Verdict:
I would make it again!
If you make it leave some comments on what you liked/didn’t like/changed/added!
Bon Appétit!
