Continuing my theme of food this week, today’s post will probably be more relevant to English readers than our American cousins. I’m not even sure if you have Shepherd’s Pie or Cottage Pie in the USA.

If you used to love either of the above and no longer have it because Potato is an avoid have you looked at the options?

Last Winter we had a glut of Parsnips in our garden and experimented with mashing them. Steamed until you can put a knife through them, drain them into a bowl, add a tablespoon of Nutritional yeast [optional] then mash or blend using a blender stick with Olive oil. We used a garlic flavoured olive oil for this.

Cook your pie filling of choice in a separate pan, then spoon into a shallow oven proof dish. Spoon the mash mixture over the top and level with a fork. Drizzle a little more oil over the top and sprinkle with Paprika. Because the pie filling and topping are already cooked you basically need to just re-heat either in the oven or micro wave and finish under the griller to get a lovely golden colour to the topping.

Also works well using Pumpkin for the topping and probably any root vegetable of choice.

Could also serve as a vegetable piped onto a plate similar to Duchess Potato.

It’s more expensive than Potato, but not if you grow your own.

Further to yesterday’s Tabbouleh post I have received a suggestion that Quinoa also makes a great alternative to Bulghur wheat. I haven’t tried it as I am unable to source Quinoa here in Tasmania.

Maybe someone can tell me where I can get it in Australia ?