- hey guys. for this month's meatless monday, i wanted to give you anidea for thanksgiving. so if you're looking for a meatless entree to serve at this annual feast,
easy food for work potluck, i've got just the thing for you. so we're probably all familiar with cottage pie that has beef in it or shepherd's pie,
which is traditionally made with lamb, named after the shepherds who've looked after the flock, so i wanted to make a vegetarian version of this classic dish and name it gardener's pie after all the gardeners wholook after the vegetables. let me show you how quickand easy it comes together. so our first step is tocreate our vegetable base.
now i will say this. if you are planning a friends-giving, or you have lots of relatives in town, this is a great recipeto rope in a few helpers because this step is not the hardest part, but it's the most time consuming because we have to cut anddice a lot of vegetables. we're first going to begin by laying down two sliced onions.
so you want to do one on one tray, and one on the other. we're going to do the samething with two eggplants. we're going to slice those and put those on top of the onions. then we're going to takefour red bell peppers, and we're going to quarter them and put two on one tray and two on the other.
and then we also wannaquarter 10 roma tomatoes. you're going to put five on one tray and five on the other. this may seem like a ton of vegetables, but actually they areall going to cook down into the most delicious almostlike ratatouille consistency, so it does take a lot of vegetables in order to fill our casserole so that we can serve anywherefrom six to eight people.
then you're also going to add one zucchini that you're going to cut in half and then dice into little half moons. you're going to put one half on one tray and the other half on the other. eight cremini mushrooms thatyou're going to quarter, and again put four on oneside and four on the other. four garlic cloves thatyou can slice very thin and sprinkle all over the trays,
and then each tray is also going to get two tablespoons of olive oil. you just want to have it drizzled all over those vegetables, half a teaspoon of salt and half a teaspoon of herbs de provence. if you can't find herbs de provence, you could also use a combination of dried basil, dried oregano,and a little dry parsley.
so now we are going to take our trays and pop them in the oven at 450 degrees, and they're going to roastin there for quite a while. it's going to take about40 minutes to an hour, and what you want to dois just take those trays and swap them out every 10 to 15 minutes, just so that each tray isgetting equally roasted. and once they've been inthere for about a half hour, you can go in and startto kind of mix them around
a little bit, makingsure all those vegetables are breaking up, andthen after the hour mark, you can remove your trays and you'll see how much those vegetables cooked down. and then you want to combine trays because you'll have a lot more room now, so you can take one tray andjust combine it with the other. and then you just want tokind of lay them all out so they're on a single layer,
and then you're going toadd one can of tomato puree, just plain tomato sauce, and then you want to stir that up, makingsure that all the sauce is getting incorporatedwith the vegetables, and then you also want to add one teaspoon of finely minced rosemary,and then you can mix that up. so now your vegetable base is ready to go, so you can transferthis into the casserole that you plan to serve this in,
and the great thing about this recipe, this can all be made the day before and you're just going to heat it up when it comes time to serve, so do make sure you put it insomething that's heat safe. so next we can make themashed potato topping that is going to coverthese delicious vegetables. so the first thing we want to do is take six russetpotatoes, cut them in half,
and then cut them in quarters. i think this is the best cut for a potato when you want them to allcook at the same time, and then we're going toplace them in cold water and we're going to set it to boil, and that's really thebest way to cook a potato if you want a nice andfluffy mashed potato is to start with cold waterand let the whole thing come up to a boil together.
now to get a really fluffyand delicious mashed potato, i think it really helpsto take your potatoes and put them through a ricer. a ricer is this little contraption that will give you the smoothest most delicious mashed potatoes, so if you want to dosomething extra special for thanksgiving, i do thinkthey are worth the investment. so you're just going to gothrough all your potatoes,
putting them through the ricer, and you'll see, you'll end up with a really nice fluffy looking mash. they look like littlegrains of rice, almost. i think that's probablywhy it got its name. and then because we'renot going to use butter for our mashed potatoes,instead we're going to use some olive oil, so i do like to add three tablespoons ofextra virgin olive oil,
which will not only flavor the potatoes, but it will also give them a really nice silky smooth texture. and then i also liketo add some fresh herbs to the potatoes, so we're going to use two tablespoons of fresh dill and one tablespoon of fresh chives, and then lastly, we're going to season with one and a half teaspoons of salt
and a little freshly cracked pepper. so you can stir thatall up until everything is nice and combined. now at this stage, youcould take these lovely mashed potatoes and just pop them on top of the vegetable base. that would definitely be great for sunday night dinneror a weeknight meal, but because it is thanksgiving,
i do like to take the extra step to transfer thesepotatoes into a pastry bag fitted with a star tip,and then we're just going to create little mounds of mashed potatoes all around our casserole, andthat will just look so pretty and so elegant when it'sreally a simple thing to do. so then at this stage, i just put the lid on my casserole and pop it in my fridge, and then when it comes time to serve,
you're going to take your casserole, keep the lid on, and place it in a 400 degree fahrenheitoven for 30 minutes, and that will help thatbase really warm up and get really delicious and bubbly. and after it's been inthere for 30 minutes, then you're going to remove the lid, increase the heat to 450 degrees, and bake it for another 10 to 15 minutes,
and that will just helpthose mashed potatoes get a little brown and crispy on top. and once it's done, youcan bring it to the table and let everybody dig in. this is another fun part about this dish. it's definitely oven to table. your guests can serve themselves. it's a beautiful dishnot only just to look at, but to have on a buffet.
it also makes a great potluck because it's very portable if you have to bring something to somebody'shouse for thanksgiving. and when you dig into it, you will see, you will have that beautifulkind of ratatouille base at the bottom mixed with those delicious fluffy mashed potatoes,speckled with those fresh herbs. you will definitely know whyi call this gardener's pie. it has just about every vegetable
that i grow in my garden represented and makes a fantastic main entree for vegetarian thanksgiving. i hope you guys give this one a try and let me know what you think, and i will see you guysback here actually tomorrow when i'm going to be bringing back my holiday helpers series. if you missed it last year,this is a special series
i like to do betweenthanksgiving and christmas that includes some wonderful holiday tips to keep you all sane during the most hectic time of the year. i'm going to show you howto get your house ready for guests, how to makesome delicious food gifts, table setting ideas, as wellas easy and elegant appetizers. so be sure to come back tomorrow and you can check out episode one.
until then, bye. (upbeat instrumental music)
0 komentar