My boyfriend made my dream come true by purchasing tickets to Universal Studios for not only me and him, but my favourite nephew!
It was a really special day for me (he even got us express passes!) and I was really happy, so I made all of us shepherd pies...in jars for easy carrying! ^^
This recipe is all-vegan, and I was actually a little bit nervous if my 7-year-old nephew would even eat it because the whole jar is basically filled with vegetables! I know some children hate vegetables. However, my favourite nephew finished it all! He also said it was very very delicious. He really gobbled it up. I was so happy!!! Hahahaha!
The boyfriend finished it up too. I'm still so happy when I think about this. I want to get married soon and become a mother! Haha!
My mashed potato for the shepherd's pie has cauliflowers mixed in, and so, isn't too carbohydrates-dense! You can't taste the cauliflowers at all. They didn't even know there was cauliflower inside. Haha!
As like all savoury food dishes, it's very easy to modify this recipe. If you love vegetables, just put in any kind of vegetable you like. If you absolutely have to eat meat, you can put in some seafood or any meat you fancy. You can make your fillings spicier or non-spicy or maybe with cream sauce. It's really all up to you. Mine isn't a very traditional shepherd's pie... I didn't even bake it them actually...but oh well, it's delicious and cute!!!! Everything in a jar is cute! I've been making lava cakes in a jar too! No pictures, but if you need the recipe...oh ok! I will just do a quick one at the end of this post! ^^
Ingredients (Makes 4 small jars):
- 2 russet potatoes
- 1/3 cup cauliflower florets
- freshly ground pepper
- 3 teaspoons salt
- nutritional yeast (optional)
- 1/2 tbsp of olive or vegetable oil
- 1/4 cup finely chopped yellow onion
- 1 cup of frozen mixed vegetables
- 1 celery stalk, finely chopped
- 1 garlic clove, minced- 6 pieces of shiitake mushrooms, washed and sliced/chopped
- 2 teaspoons tomato paste
- freshly ground pepper
1. In a pot of heavily salted water, boil cauliflower till they are soft (about 15 minutes). Remove with a sieve and drain. Break cauliflower into smaller pieces. Pour 50ml of this water into a seperate bowl/cup and put it aside.
2. Using the same pot of water (you may have to add in more water now), boil potatoes until they are tender when pierced with a fork (about 20 to 30 minutes). Remove from pot, run them under cold water, peel the potatoes with your hand, and dry the peeled potatoes with a paper towel. Break them into pieces.
3. In a mixing bowl, throw in the cauliflower and potatoes and beat it with a hand mixer until smooth and creamy. You can also mash it with a fork/potato masher manually. Season with pepper, salt and nutritional yeast.
4. In a medium-sized pan, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add the onions, celery, and frozen vegetables and cook, stirring constantly, until softened (about 5 minutes).
5. Add the garlic and stir for 1 minute.
6. Add the mushrooms and cook until they are slightly browned.
7. Stir in the 50ml of water you have used to cook the cauliflower earlier, tomato paste, and cook, stirring, until the liquid has almost evaporated, about 3 minutes.
8. Season with salt and pepper.
9. Divide the vegetable mixture into 4 empty jars. Each jar should be 3/4 full. Spoon the mashed potato-and-cauliflower into each jar on top of the vegetable mixture.
10. You can bake them if you want at 180℃ for 10 minutes. Be careful of the hot jars when taking out from the oven!
BONUS RECIPE!
Picture not mine. This is microwave chocolate lava cakes from another blog. Check out its recipe here! The jars that I used are about this size too though! ^^
VEGAN LAVA CAKE (Makes 2 small jars):
Dry ingredients:
- 65g all-purpose flour
- 65g sugar
- 15g unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2g baking soda
- pinch of salt
Wet ingredients:
- 115g soymilk
- 55g canola oil
- 10g white or apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract/ paste
Other ingredients:
- 2 tablespoons vegan semisweet chocolate chips
- powdered sugar for dusting (optional)
1. Preheat oven to 200℃. Lightly grease your jars.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together all the wet ingredients.
4. Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture and mix until just combined. Do not overmix.
5. Fill each jar 1/4 full. Place 1 heaping tablespoon of chocolate chips of the batter in the center. Fill the jars with more batter until 3/4 full or slightly less than that.
6. Place the open jars on a rimmed baking sheet and bake for 12~15 minutes.
7. Remove the whole tray for oven. Wait for jars to cool down before handling them. Be careful they'll be really hot! Dust powdered sugar over your lava cake if you want to. Screw on the cap and they're ready to be given away as gifts for your loved ones! ^^
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