Indian Harvest Shepherds Pie

Background: I enjoy finding ways to incorporate seasonal ingredients and tastes into many of my dishes, replacing more common ingredients with new and interesting ingredients, and mixing themes from different cultures into the same dish. This recipe has all of those elements! The Indian Harvest Shepherds pie is a twist on a traditional shepherds pie, but uses ground turkey instead of beef, sweet potatoes instead of traditional, and it incorporates quinoa as a low carb/high protein grain. The spices are a mix of American harvest spices and traditional Indian Spices. The combination is a textural and palatable adventure that is low carb, low fat, and full of flavor.

Originally from: Inspired from plain ground turkey meatloaf!

Serves ~ 4 -5

Approximate time, from prep to table: 1:15

Ingredients:

- 1 to 1.25 lbs of ground turkey

- 4 large sweet potatoes

- 1 large red onion, chopped

- 2 cloves of garlic, chopped, or 1 Tbs garlic powder

- 1 pint grape tomatoes

- 1/2 cup of quinoa, uncooked

- 1 egg, beaten

- 1.5 cups of raisins (best if mix of golden and red)

- 2 Tbs finely chopped fresh ginger, or 1 tsp powdered ginger

- olive or canola oil

- 2 Tbs butter

- 1 cup whole milk, or cream

- 1.5 tsp cury powder

- 2 tsp salt

- 1 tsp red pepper flakes, or clancy's fancy hot sauce (optional)

- 1.5 tsp cinnamon

- pinch of nutmeg

- 2 cups of water

Directions:

Cut the Sweet Potatoes into quarters, or another chunky shape, and set them on a baking sheet drizzled with oil. You will be mashing or blending them later, so how you bake them is up to you. Bake the potatoes at 375 for 35 min.

In a large pan, saute on medium high heat 1/2 of the chopped onion, the chopped ginger (if powder add later), chopped garlic in oil. Saute until the onions begin to become translucent and the garlic is lightly browned. Garlic will brown faster than onions so you may wish to add it later. Once the onions are translucent, stir in the quinoa and 1 cup of raisins, and let them absorb some of the oil and flavors for 1 minute, then add the 1 cup of water and let it cook down on medium high heat - it should be bubbling. Once most of the water has simmered off, test the quinoa, if it is still hard, stir in 1/2 cup of water and let it simmer until the quinoa becomes softer but still somewhat firm (it will never be as soft as rice, it is more like couscous). Once the quinoa is ready and all water is simmered away, set the pan off the heat and to the side.

In a large glass mixing bowl, mix the ground turkey, egg, salt, cinnamon, curry powder, red pepper flakes or clancys fancy hot sauce (optional heat and yum). Now add the saute mix from the pan you set aside and stir until all is evenly mixed. Take out a 8x12 to 8x16 inch baking pan, lightly coat the base in butter or oil, and spread in the turkey mixture - it should be about 1.5-2 inches thick.

By now your potatoes should be done baking, and out of the oven. Place them into a blender or mixing bowl (I prefer a submersion blender for this part), pour 2/3 cup milk or cream, butter (optional), nutmeg, and a dash of salt and cinnamon. Blend or hand mash until nice and soft. Take the mashed potatoes and spread them evenly over the turkey in the baking pan. Bake for 20 minutes at 400 F, and then broil for 1-2 min on High, until the top of the potatoes have a very light browning on top.

While the shepherds pie is baking, saute the remaining 1/2 onion, pint of grape tomatoes, pinch of cinnamon and salt, and raisins in a pan with oil. Add a little cream or whole milk for consistency if you desire once the onions start to brown. Cook this until the grape tomatoes "pop" and their skin visibly breaks in one spot. This is your "chutney" base.

Once the shepherds pie is done baking take it out and allow it to cool briefly. Put a few scoops of the chutney in the base of a large bowl or plate, and place a few square of the pie on top and serve!