Growing up, shepherd’s pie was one of those weekly meals that my family always looked forward to. I would always steal some mashed potatoes from the pot before they ended up in the casserole dish. I was looking to recreate this comfort food but with a twist. My mom never used celeriac, but because it is in season and looked intriguing I figured I would give it a try. If you were wondering, celeriac is the root of celery and can be treated like a potato. The celeriac tastes like a less starchy potato mixed with celery and parsley. The taste is rather strong by itself in my opinion, but pairs well with mashed potatoes. Feel free to edit this recipe to make it your own.
Ingredients
- 3 medium sized potatoes
- 3 medium celeriac (celery root)
- 1 1/3 cup of corn
- 1 quart of mushrooms (I used a mixed package)
- ½ large onion
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- 1 tablespoon vegan butter or butter
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic or 1 small clove
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
Optional:
- 1 sausage, vegan or otherwise (I added this to give the bottom a meatier texture and taste)
Directions
- Peel the celeriac (it was much easier to use a knife by cutting the top and bottom off and slicing off the sides).
- You can choose to peel the potatoes, but I left the peels on for more texture.
- Wash the potato and celeriac making sure to get visible dirt off.
- Place two pots of water, one with the sliced potatoes and one with the sliced celeriac, on the stove top and bring to a boil.
- Open the package of mushrooms and wash.
- Slice the mushrooms an onion into bite size pieces.
- Place a pan on the stove top and warm up the olive oil.
- Add the onions and garlic to the pan and simmer until the onions are translucent.
- Add the mushrooms to the onion and garlic mixture and cook until tender.
- Set the oven to 350 °F.
- If you are using (vegan) sausage slice the sausage into bite size pieces and put in with the mushrooms.
- Place the mushroom, sausage, and onion mixture into the bottom of a casserole dish completely covering the bottom.
- Poor the corn over the mixture and flatten out into one layer.
- Cook the potatoes and celeriac until fork tender (the celeriac took a little longer).
- Drain the potatoes and celeriac.
- Place the celeriac, potatoes, butter, salt, and pepper in a bowl and using a potato masher mash until smooth and well incorporated.
- Layer the potato and celeriac mix on the top and flatten and press down lightly, make sure to cover the corn completely.
- Place the casserole dish into the oven and cook for 30 minutes or until the potatoes start to be golden brown on the sides.
- Take out of the oven, let cool for 5 minutes, and enjoy!