I am fond of one pot dishes. Be it a chicken biryani or a shephard pie. Usually one pot dishes are made by assembling a number of ingredients and cooking or baking them together.

Vegetarian shephard pie is a very simple and nutritious one pot dish. I make it with different vegetables. You can try it with meat too. Put all the ingredients together before and then bake it when you want to serve. Make it for a friends get together or for your family. Its a hit always.

Here I am using mushrooms and carrots. A lot of people I know are averse to mushrooms which incidently are a rich source of proteins and antioxidants.White button mushrooms are one of the few non animal sources of vitamin D. It’s easy to cook. Can be either sauted or grilled. My daughter loves them so I use them in all sort of dishes. Now lets come back to the recipe.

Ingredients:

For the Mushroom Layer:

Mushrooms: 500g

Carrots:2

Cottage cheese: 50 g

Onion: 1 big

Chopped garlic:1 tsp

Tomato puree:1/2 cup

Wheat flour: 1 tbsp

Olive oil or any other oil: 1 tbsp

Salt: to taste

Black pepper: to taste

For the Upper Potato Topping:

Potatoes( boiled and mashed): 4 big

Hot milk: 1 cup

Butter or cream: 1 tbsp ( optional)

Salt :To taste

Pepper:to taste

Herbs to sprinkle on the top (optional): 1 tsp

Instructions:

Wash and chop the veggies finely.

In a pan, heat oil and add onions and garlic. Saute them for a while or till the onions start to brown. Add salt. Salt helps veggies to cook in there own water.

Add chopped carrots and cook till these are soft.

Mix in chopped mushrooms and saute for a minute. Sprinkle pepper powder. You can add in indian spices of your choice if you like your food to be spicy.

Mushrooms have very high water content that will make the veggies moist. Add tomato puree and cook till all the vegetables are coated in the suace.

Dry roast wheat flour in a pan and add to the vegetables. This will absorb the extra water and will thicken the sauce.

Now grate or crumble the cottage cheese and add in the veggies mix. Saute the mixture for 2-3 minutes.

The filling of the pie is ready. Allow it to cool.

While the filling cools,take the mashed potatoes in a big bowl and mix salt and pepper. Add in butter or cream if you are using any.

With the help of a fork, start incorporating milk in the potatoes. Do it in parts, adding little milk at a time and mixing it with a fork.

When the entire milk is incorporated,the potatoes will be soft and creamy.Don’t skip this step as crust of the pie will be very soft and smooth due to the incorporated milk.

Preheat the oven at 190 C before you start to assemble the pie.

Grease an 8 by 8 baking dish with butter or oil and spread the veggies layer. On the top of it,spread potatoes with the help of a spoon.

Bake it at 190 C for 30 minutes. Bake it for a longer time if you want the potatoes to brown.

You can sprinkle grated cheese on the top layer after 20 mins,if you like your baked dishes to be cheesy or if you are serving it to your child.

Dig in as soon as you take it out of oven. It’s an absolute delight.