Fall is in full swing around here! The temps are starting to drop—although not too much—we’re still getting away with short sleeves in the afternoon! The leaves are changing colors, it’s getting dark earlier in the evening, and this weekend we made our annual pilgrimage to the farm to pick out our pumpkins—the boys loved it!
^^^ Christmas card pic?
With these cooler days come warmer, stick to your ribs comfort food. I’ve been making lots of soups, mac and cheese, and our new favorite—Hash Brown Shepherds Pie.
Confession—I’ve never had a “real” shepherd’s pie. Honestly, I think the closest I’ve ever come was watching the episode of Friends where Rachel makes an English Trifle (dessert), but the pages stick together, so she ends up making half of a trifle and half of a shepherd’s pie. Ross and Joey are in a hurry to go out and meet girls, so they don’t tell her that she’s made the recipe incorrectly and eat it anyway. As everyone runs to find a place to hide their trifle—the balcony, the bathroom, the bedroom—Joey eats the entire thing and loves it. Watch the hilarious clips here and here!
I’ve always been curious about this traditional dish—the one without Rachel’s whipped cream, jam, and custard—so I set out to make my own! I take a shortcut and use frozen hash browns instead of mashed potatoes and it is SO delicious! The hash browns get brown and crispy and perfect! I make the “stew” portion of the dish with onions, carrots, and celery, browned in olive oil, and then add chunks of my homemade seitan and simmer it all in red wine. Delicious!
This simple dish comes together in about 25 minutes of hands on time, and another 30 minutes in the oven! Easy! Give it a try—if your family is anything like ours you won’t have any leftovers! And when you get a chance to make this, will you take a picture, post it on Instagram, and tag it with #frieddandelions? I’d love to see what you make!
Hash Brown Shepherd’s Pie
Meet your new go to casserole for fall! Crispy potatoes and hearty chunks of seitan and veggies baked together into a perfect one pot meal!
Servings: 6 servings
Ingredients
- 1 T olive oil
- 1 onion diced small
- 2 large carrots diced small
- 1-2 stalks of celery diced small
- 1 pound seitan make your own! (about 2 boxes store bought seitan—I like Upton's brand), cut into small cubes
- 2 T flour
- 1/2 c red wine
- 1 c veggie broth you could probably just sub more red wine—I won't tell!
- 1 T fresh rosemary 1 t dried
- 1/2 t salt optional (I find that the Alexia brand of hash browns that I like are pretty salty, so I sometimes skip the salt in the stew portion)
- Pepper
- 1 pound bag of frozen hash browns I like the Alexia brand
- 1 T olive oil brushed on top
- rosemary or parsley for garnish optional
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 400°.
- In an oven safe pan heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onions and reduce to medium low. Add the carrots and celery and allow to sautee for 15 minutes. Increase heat to medium and add the chunks of seitan and cook for about 5 minutes more, stirring occasionally to keep from sticking, but allowing to brown a bit. Stir in 2 T of flour and mix well to coat and distribute.
- Pour wine over top of the seitan and veggies and use a wooden spoon to loosen up any brown bits. Add the veggie stock and stir well to continue breaking brown bits off the bottom. Add the rosemary, a few cracks of black pepper, and salt if you are using it (this is dependent on how salty your hash browns are). Allow to cook through for about 2 minutes, letting the sauce thicken up a little bit.
- Remove from heat. Crumble the frozen hash browns in the bag (so they don't come out in one big chunk), then open and evenly distribute on top of the stew. Brush the hash browns with olive oil. Place in the oven and bake for 30 minutes. At that time, turn the broiler on and brown the top for up to 5 minutes, watching it the entire time. Don't burn your beautiful dinner!
- Remove from oven, allow to cool for a minute, and serve!
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