Skillet Gardener's Pie

Skillet Gardener’s Pie
Two of my children are big Doctor Who fans, so they like to eat anything British.  In the past couple of months, we went to a screening of a show at a British restaurant and they tried Shepherd’s Pie.  They loved it!  So I tried a vegan version here at home.  It was good, to me, but not quite what they wanted.  So I tried Skillet Gardener’s Pie from Fat Free Vegan today—yummo!  Here is a link to the original recipe:  Skillet Gardener’s Pie.  I made a few changes.  I used swiss chard instead of spinach, peas instead of green beans, and I baked it in the oven rather than on the stove in a skillet.  Not major changes and it was really good.  Honestly, I am using this British thing to try cooking several more items, in hopes that my picky eaters will broaden their food horizons.  We have made pasties with great success, so much so that my daughter’s friends request it so they can share it with her at school—score!

Mashed potatoes to go on top of the Skillet Gardener’s Pie.  I left the peel on as I am too lazy to peel them if I have a choice. :)  Actually, my spouse made the mashed potatoes for me—nice!  He didn’t want to peel them either.  These were mashed and whipped in my Kitchen Aid mixer, you can see the blade in the picture.  I love that mixer—it really does do the stuff that I don’t want to do, like mash the potatoes by hand.

I don’t use oil to saute in, instead I use water.  This picture is of the onion, carrot, celery, and mushrooms; they were sauteed in water and then I added the two cups of vegetable broth.  So I did not saute them in two cups of water!  I only used about 1/3 of a cup.