Friday January 23 was National Pie Day, to honor the history of pie as part of our American heritage. We at the Modern Southern Kitchen celebrate all things food, and who doesn't love pie? So we rose to the occasion, and created a special Shepard's Pie for your enjoyment.

We created a delectable but crustless Shepard's pie, but we make up for the calorie savings from the missing crust by smothering the veggies in a luscious mushroom gravy. The recipe makes some extra gravy for serving on the side, in case you need a little something to assuage the tingle of the spicy sweet potato topping on your tongue.


Vegetarian Shepard’s Pie
This dish requires several steps, first, boil to potatoes while you chop the vegetables and make the gravy. Sauté the veggies, toss in gravy, assemble and bake.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees and lightly grease a casserole dish.

Sweet potato topping
8 small sweet potatoes
1 tsp. blackening seasoning
1 tsp. herbes de Provence
1 tsp. thyme
1 tsp Hot Hungarian paprika (or smoked if you do not like spicy food)
1 Tbsp. butter
12 cracks of fresh ground pepper
1 tsp. garlic salt
1 tsp. Garlic Herb Mrs. Dash
1 Tbsp. milk
Boil sweet potatoes in skin until fork tender. Drain and let sit in the colander to cool. Remove skins, discard. Whip sweet potatoes with seasonings and butter and milk until fluffy. Set aside. If you do not like spicy food, replace the hot Hungarian paprika with smoked paprika.

Veggie filling
½ head of cabbage
1 or 2 carrots
6 small turnips
1 small onion
2 cloves garlic
1 once of dried mushrooms, broken into bite size pieces and reconstituted with 2 cups hot water (reserve the water for gravy)
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp. vegetarian Worcestershire sauce
Chop all veggies into small bite sized pieces. Heat oil in medium sized pot over medium high heat. Drain mushrooms and strain water into a bowl to use later in gravy. Sauté all veggies in oil and Worcestershire sauce for about 10 minutes until becoming soft and wilted. Set veggie filling to the side until you have made the gravy.
Gravy
2 Tbsp. butter
2 Tbsp. olive oil
½ cup flour
1 cup of reserved mushroom water
1 ½ cups milk
½ tsp. thyme
½ tsp. Hot Hungarian paprika
½ tsp. Herbes de Provence
½ tsp. garlic salt
½ tsp. Mrs. Dash garlic and herb
Heat the butter and olive oil in a heavy bottomed sauce pan over medium heat. Add flour, let cook for two minutes . Whisk in milk and mushroom water. Add seasonings, bring slowly to a boil, stirring constantly, until thickened.
Toss veggies with half of the gravy. Reserve other half gravy to serve later with the finished dish. Pour veggies into lightly greased casserole dish and top with whipped sweet potatoes. Dot with additional butter if you feel like it. Bake for 45 minutes until top is browned. If top doesn’t brown in 45 minutes and pie is set, broil from the middle rack on high for 2-3 minutes until top is brown and crusty.
Let cool for 10 minutes, serve, with the rest of the gravy on the side.