This is my vegetarian take on Shepherd's pie. Admittedly, in the case of this dish, you could just toss everything together in a bowl and eat it as is, but on a gray, blustery day when dining on leftovers, putting in a couple of extra minutes so that dinner tasted slightly more indulgent because of how it was presented felt a worthwhile use of time.
There are a myriad of versions of this that you could make -- it all depends on what vegetables you have in the fridge and what spice you add to the cream. You could mix in cooked lentils, or add some ginger to the roasted vegetables. Rather than slicing the potato for the top, you could use mashed potato, or even substitute a sweet potato. You could even add some cheese to the top and put it under the broiler until the cheese has melted and is getting crispy on the top. The basic point I am trying to make is that you should have fun with this: leftovers and roasted vegetables don't have to be sad despite the sad photos that I took of the dish.
I had roasted vegetables in the fridge because, as I have mentioned before, I roast all vegetables in the fridge on Saturday morning as part of my fridge clear-out before the weekly shop arrives along with new produce. This week I had carrots, eggplant, mushrooms, kohlrabi and red onions to roast. I used a cup of this mixture, and added a cup of spinach and shredded radicchio that I had wilted in a pan with some oil and salt.
1 small potato
1 cup roasted vegetables
1 cup mixed chopped greens
1 tsp olive oil
2 tsps cream
1/8 tsp curry powder
Salt to taste
Place the potato in the microwave and cook for two and a half minutes before flipping the potato over and cooking for an additional two and a half minutes. (Or boil as you usually would potatoes.)
While the potato is cooking, heat the oil in a skillet. Add the greens and a pinch of salt and stir until wilted, a minute or so. Add the roasted vegetables and stir to combine. Heat through until piping hot.
Remove the potato from the microwave and cut into slices. The peel should come off each slice easily.
Pack the vegetables into a ring or, if you do not own one, mound them onto a plate or stuff them into a ramekin.
Using the pan from heating the vegetables, heat the cream until bubbling away and slightly thickened. Stir in the curry powder. This will take less than thirty seconds and two teaspoons of cream is not much.
Remove the ring. Top the vegetables with the potato slices and drizzle with the flavored cream.
Serve at once, definitely with a green salad on the side.
This is from fridge to table in less than fifteen minutes dish.
