Butternut Squash Shepherd's Pie

In honor of the upcoming holidays and the gorgeous winter squashes out in all the stores right now, I am coming at you with another butternut squash recipe. It's just such a versatile squash and I love it so much that I play with it a lot in my cooking.

Here I have a butternut squash shepherd's pie.

It's completely vegetarian and completely delicious!

So I started by chopping carrots, celery, onion (mirepoix) and garlic. You just want them to be cut into similar sizes and bite sized pieces.

I peeled, seeded and diced a whole butternut squash (about 1 1/2 - 2 lbs) into about 1/2 to 3/4 inch cubes. I steamed it in a big pan on medium low heat with a little veggie stock until they were al dente.

You can also just throw the diced and cubed BNS in the oven and roast it on high until al dente, if you prefer. I just wanted to keep and eye on them and make sure they didn't cook for too long or else they would have turned into a butternut squash mash in the filling.

Not cute.

PS that picture up there is of my sister 'helping' me cook. This is her version of stirring... a spatula in one hand and iPhone in the other. Gotta love her.

Then I removed the BNS from the pan and set it aside. I added about 4-5 tablespoons of olive oil and sauteed the onions, carrots, celery and garlic and added about 1 tablespoon of dried thyme and salt and pepper for about 5 minutes on medium to medium high heat.

Then I added 2 heaping tablespoons of flour over all the veggies and oil and mixed it around.

Make sure everything is coated with the flour and oil and keep everything moving for about 1 minute so the flour taste has time to cook out a bit.

Then I added veggie stock slowly, about 1/2 cup at a time, while stirring until my mixture reached the consistency that I wanted. You want it to be thick like a good gravy but not so thick that it's like paste.

Add the stock slowly because you don't want it to be too loose or it can turn too soupy.

You will need about 3 cups of stock altogether.

Make sure you are checking for seasoning (salt and pepper) along the way, always!

Then I added the BNS back into the pan and added about 1/2 cup of frozen peas. You can add more or less, depending on what you like. I like to have peas in every bite!

Then I made some delicious buttermilk mashed potatoes and topped each mini 'pie' with.

I baked them in the oven for about 10 minutes until it was golden on top and bubbly inside.

Per-fection!
It is comfort food at its finest and it was a really amazing dinner!

The butternut squash works really well here in place of chicken, too.

It's hearty, it's healthy and it's a 'make you feel good' kind of dish.

You can also put it in a big baking dish instead of individual bowls and top it with the mashed potatoes. Bake it in the oven for about 15 minutes on 350 until everything is bubbly and golden brown. You may want to dot the potatoes with more butter so they won't dry out in the oven.

I grated some pecorino romano on top of my lil guys.

Make it!!

I promise, you will LOVE it.

love.