Gluten-Free Vegetarian Shepherd's Pie

The Barry Family, all dressed up 

David Barry was a games-playing friend of my older brother, Nils, during Pietermaritzburg university days. I’m talking those days-long war games IRL (In Real Life) which appear mostly to have been supplanted by online gaming such as W(orld) O(f) W(arcraft), which is now so old I am showing how out-of-date I am in reality with online gaming, though David still undertakes Friday night gaming with friends, where “Agricola still a favourite (especially with my hand-made fimo people figurines as farmers/playing pieces)”.

I got to know David when he sub-rented my flat in Hillbrow when he first started work at IBM Johannesburg, while he was looking to rent a flat of his own. A few short years later, he came visiting one day with a friend, Pia, who hailed from Belguim and whom he had met, of course, in London many years previously as another attendee of the “International Youth Science Fortnight”, something which brought together clever scientifically oriented kids from all over the world. Pia is a letter-writer of note, and continued for many years to write to her friends all over the world. One day she decided to to a final clear-out of all those who had previously failed to correspond, David was one who did correspond back, they struck up a friendship anew, a while later she visited, and some years of international correspondence later, they were married and made the courageous decision for both of them to relocate to another part of the world altogether, as a means of levelling the cultural playing fields, as it were. 

Hence they now reside in Vancouver, Canada, where he for many years continued to work in computer support, initially for IBM (the company name changed a few times, it's currently part of TELUS), and she completed her PhD in Forestry and is currently involved in a large research project in the forestry department, at UBC. They have two children, Tim and Megan, and despite living in an apartment in a big city, Pia has most ingeniously managed to find ways of growing and buying local and organic (from helping an aged friend in her garden to buying a vegetable box weekly from a nearby small farm). 

Pia has coeliac disease, an auto-immune disease triggered by gluten and hence not only are the demands upon her cooking skills greater than usual, but everything the family eats is necessarily gluten-free. She has shared ideas and a recipe book with my friend Lizette, now in New Zealand, whose young son also suffers from coeliac disease, which is comprised predominantly of favourite recipes they have gathered over the years. 

As David puts it, “Pia always looks for the following in recipes: a) simple/fast/easy; b) vegetarian if possible; c) inspirational pictures; d) minimal oven cooking (avoids roasts etc.) . (It has to be gluten-free of course, or be easy to adjust, so she also avoids pastries and most baked goods). We tend not to eat out much, which limits our exposure to new foods (always challenging when on a gluten-free diet), but special restaurant dishes (or meals with friends) are the other primary inspiration for any new recipes. (Just not very often). My own preferences are different - I love comfort foods - so sometimes I have to find or invent my own recipe for something special like this.”

“This is a contribution to the foodies channel, if you wish. This dish is something that I was inspired to make up a few months ago, and has since become quite a favourite, especially since we're in the middle of winter! It is loosely based on a recipe in "The Jumbo Vegetarian Cookbook" (from "Kids can press", aimed for kids but also good for bachelors :-) ), but with many changes, so is very much my own.” 

Herewith, without further ado, David’s comforting, gluten-free vegetarian shepherd’s pie, and all the text below is his. Please, do, however, bear in mind the fact that, should you wish to surprise a friend with coeliac disease by making them this dish, please note that you have to be careful with the stock cube used; I remember Pia visiting countries with her own stash of gluten-free stock cubes lest she not be able to find any easily while travelling. 

Gluten-Free Vegetarian Shepherd's Pie

Serves about 8 portions (depending on how hungry your kids are!). Takes about 75 minutes prep and assembly time, plus another 40-45minutes of baking. It's gluten-free of course, but not vegan - could be modified though.

Ingredients:

4 large (or 6 medium) potatoes (Russet - but really anything should work - about 1Kg or 2lb

additional salt to taste

some milk, butter and/or salty mayonnaise for making mashed potato

1 cup lentils (uncooked)

0.5 soup cube

0.5 tsp pepper (or chili, adjust amount according to your tastes)

1.5 Tbsp canola or sunflower seed cooking oil (or similar)

2 large onions, about 1.5 cups when thinly sliced

about 8 mushrooms, a bit more than 1 cup diced or sliced

one large or two medium carrots, about a cup when thinly sliced

0.5 small can of tomato paste (156ml or 5.5oz can)

one cup frozen peas

one cup frozen corn

[optional: one cup of any other thinly sliced vegetable, e.g. cabbage]

mild cheddar cheese, sliced (about 10 slices) or grated (about 1.5 cup)

0.5 cup raisins or mixed raisins and dried cranberries

0.33 cup slivered almonds

0.25 cup sunflower seeds 

Instructions:

1. put the peas and corn out to defrost.

2. prepare all the vegetables except the onions, and set aside for later. 

3. Wash, peel and dice the potatoes. Set to boil in a large pot in about 2 litres of water (or covered), with a bit of salt to taste. Set a timer to check after 10-15 minutes; poke with a fork to check if done, then drain.

4. While the potatoes are cooking, check through the lentils for any stones. In a small pot, add two cups water to the cup of lentils, plus the half soup cube (chopped into smaller bits and stirred in) and half teaspoon of pepper. Set to boil, and then simmer for 30 minutes, or until all the water is absorbed (lentils should be soft). 

5. Mash the potatoes together with a bit of butter or margarine, plus salty mayonnaise to tasted, and a bit of milk to avoid it being too stiff. 

6. set the oven on 190°C.

7. peel the onions, cut in half, and then slice thinly.

8. put the oil in a medium/large pot, and sautee the sliced onion for a few minutes. Stir/mix occasionally

9. put the sliced carrots and mushrooms in with the onions, and cook for a minute or two, then turn off the heat.

10. add the lentils, tomato paste, peas, corn and any other vegetables to the onions. Add the sunflower seeds, slivered almonds and raisins/cranberries to the mix (*). Stir/mix well.

11. put the vegetable mix into appropriately-sized oven-proof dishes (e.g. 3 bread-tins, or 2 casserole dishes - should be at least 5cm deep). The lentil/veggie mix should be about an inch / 2.5cm deep.

12. Spread the mashed potato evenly on top of the lentil/veggie mix. Ideally, you should have about 2cm depth of potato mash all over. Optionally, add a few small dabs of butter here and there on top.

13. spread the cheese slices or grated cheese evenly over the top of the potato. Optionally, decorate with a few more dried cranberries on top. 

14. bake the shepherd's pie at 190°C for about 40 minutes (45m if using a glass dish) - the cheese should be melted and browned, and the potato should appear a bit like a pastry when you cut into it. Warning - you should wait a bit before eating; it will be very hot at first.

15. Serve with some other simple cooked vegetables, e.g. beans or brocolli. (Also goes very well with ketchup, in my opinion. :-) )

* Note: my kids are not keen on mixed savoury/sweet tastes or nuts (nor too much pepper!), so I normally spoon out one portion of the veggie mix into a baking dish for them, before actually adding the slivered almonds and raisins to the rest (for the adult version). 

At the Grand Canyon

Bon appetit!

Thank you, David, for sharing this delicious recipe with us all.