Friday

1.20.12

the other day on facebook, i saw someone post a picture of the shepherd's pie he and his wife had made following the paleo diet recipe. it looked amazing, but when i read the recipe i wasn't too excited about cooking with two pounds of beef so soon after my juice fast (this morning caught me up to the end of day five). i also realized that it took two hours of marinating the meat, and then six hours in the crock pot, which is completely fine, but i really didn't have the time for that today, so i modified the recipe a little bit. i used only one pound of lean, all natural turkey and a pound of mushrooms instead of the beef and then just cooked it all in a dutch oven instead of crock pot. it turned out pretty delicious, and i actually liked the slightly smaller amount of meat, since it really gave the veggies voice in the dish. in case any of you want to try this out, here's my recipe:



1 lb ground turkey
16oz fresh mushroom (chopped very small in either a food processor or blender)
9 cloves of garlic (minced; separated into 6 cloves a
nd 3 cloves)
1 yellow onion (chopped)
1 head of cabbage (chopped)
4 carrots (chopped/diced)
4 stalks of celery (chopped/diced)
1 head of cauliflower (removed from core)
3 Tbsp green onion (chopped)
2Tbsp olive oil
1/2Tbsp butter
1 small can of tomato paste
sea salt and pepper
oregano
thyme
(i didn't measure out the oregano or thyme, just used an amount that looked good to me)
a splash of water
a splash of milk

Combine turkey, mushroom, olive oil, 6 cloves of garlic, or
egano, and thyme in a bowl until turkey and mushroom
are coated and set aside in refrigerator for later use.

In a large skillet, grill the rest of the garlic and the onion until reduced in size and then add the turkey mixture and cook until browned. Transfer the mixture to the dutch oven on medium heat (approximately, my stove is gas so i'm not sure what it woul
d be on an electric). Add the cabbage, carrots, celery, a splash of water, and sea salt and pepper to taste. Stir up and cover to cook veggies.

While this is simmering, steam the cauliflower. Once s
oft, mash with potato masher (or put in food processor) until it's about the consistency of mashed potato. Add a splash of milk and 1/2Tbsp to flavor, stir and then stir in the green onions.

Scoop the turkey and vegetable mixture into a bakin
g dish (mine looks small in the photo because i had to use two dishes) and top with the cauliflower mash. Set the oven to 500 (or use the broiler) and place the baking dish in for about 10 minutes. Again, mine is gas and seems to be a bit off from the cooking time of other recipes i find online, so just keep an eye on it. It's done when the bottom part starts to bubble up and the cauliflower mash starts to become golden brown on top.

It's definitely a new take on the dish, and with my tweaks i could probably never serve it to chef ramsay and call it shepherd's pie, but it tastes pretty wonderful :)

(this is also the first recipe i've posted besides the kale chips, and since i sort of make stuff up as i go along, let me know if anything sounds amiss!)

(adapted from this recipe)

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