Thanksgiving ReMix - Shepherd's Pie

Shepherd's Pie was an easy recipe to think of - the amount of leftovers this recipe used was amazing. We used half a turkey breast, turkey stock, gravy, 2 cups mashed potatoes, two carrots, 3 ribs of celery, 3 turnips, 1 white onion, thyme and mushrooms - all of which we had floating around in the fridge from either our Thanksgiving dinner or from making our vegetable stock (which was made for Thanksgiving). Our refrigerator breathed a sigh of relief as we unloaded crisper drawers and tupperware containers.

The recipe we used was based on this recipe. We made a few changes based on our leftover situation, but isn't that the point of these types of recipe - to use up all the mis-matched ingredients you have on hand? So, you can use this as inspiration and throw in whatever else you may be needed to use from your fridge. Ours turned out a bit on the runny side, so in hindsight, I would sub butter for olive oil and use 2 tbsp with 2 tbsp flour so that the rue was thicker, but other than that, the flavor was awesome. We will be keeping this recipe for use with next year's leftovers.

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 1/2 cups chopped white onion

2 carrots, peeled and chopped

3 celery ribs, chopped

1/4 tsp Essence (see Emeril's recipe for it here) 

2 pinch salt

pinch of ground black pepper

1 garlic clove, minced

1/4 tsp thyme leaves (we used dried)

 6 oz. mushrooms, stemmed, cleaned and sliced

1 bay leaf

1 tbsp flour

1/3 c. tomato sauce

2 1/2 c. roasted turkey breast, meat shredded

1 1/4 c. turkey stock (you could use chicken)

2 cups leftover mashed potatoes, mixed with blended turnips

3 turnips, boiled and blended with immersion blender 

1/4 c. Manchego cheese

1 c. grated Goat's milk Cheddar

1/2 c. leftover gravy 

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet or saute pan. Saute the onion, carrots and celery with the Essence, salt and pepper.

Once the onions are clear and tender, toss in the garlic and saute for about 30 seconds to a minute. Then toss in the mushroom, thyme and bay leaf.

Once the mushrooms have wilted, toss in the flour and coat everything in the flour. Then add the tomato sauce and turkey breast and stir to combine. Slowly add the turkey stock and stir to combine. Simmer for about 10 minutes, until the sauce has thickened.

Pour the mixture into a 9" x 9" pan and top with the turnip mashed potatoes. Top with the Manchego cheese (which melts into the potatoes and adds a nice buttery flavor). Top that with the Cheddar and place in a 400 F oven for about a half hour, until the potato is crisp and the cheese is bubbly and golden.  

Serve and drizzle some leftover gravy for a yummy use of all those odds and ends.