Vegan Shepherds Pie

Since eating a whole foods plant based diet MOST of the time I eat a TON more veggies than I typically would. It's awesome, I feel like I'm totally rocking at eating my veggies; my mom would be so proud! ;) With that being said I made this amazing vegan shepherds pie dish made from ALL veggies! I know anytime someone says the word vegan people are quick to turn their nose up to it, but vegan meals are the most flavorful tasting meals ever in my opinion. And side note; just because something is labeled "VEGAN" doesn't mean it's healthy too. An Oreo is considered to be vegan, and that = GROSS and NOT HEALTHY. That's why I prefer to label my foods as whole foods plant based meals. Back to talking about how delicious this meal is. Even if you don't use this as a main dish at least try it in place of a side dish of veggies! Or if you're a meat eater and love one bowl meals you can easily add lean ground beef, turkey or chicken to this dish. In this dish I've used cauliflower as the topping in place of mashed potatoes. Thanks to the sulforaphane in cauliflower it makes it healthy for the heart and has been found to significantly improve blood pressure and kidney function. It's also a low carb vegetable which makes the whole dish low-carb! Give it a try!

Serves: 4 ~ 250 calories/serving INGREDIENTS: * 1 large head of cauliflower, rinsed in water, leaves removed and chopped * 4 Tablespoons olive oil * 1 onion, diced * 2 medium sized carrots, peeled and diced * 2 celery stalks, rinsed and diced * 3 gloves garlic chopped * ~8oz. sliced baby bella mushrooms (if not sliced, slice into bite size pieces) * 1 15oz. can unsalted diced tomatoes (preferably organic and BPA FREE) * 1 Tablespoon thyme leaves * 3 Tablespoons nutritional yeast (found in health food stores, or sold in bulk. Make sure it's nutritional yeast and NOT brewers yeast.) * 1 pinch ground nutmeg

* Sea salt and pepper to season ** OPTIONAL 1lb of ground meat INSTRUCTIONS: 1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. 2. After rinsing the cauliflower into roughly equal sized pieces add to a medium saucepan with 1 inch of water in bottom of pan. Bring to a boil, cover and let it cook for about 10min, or until cauliflower is cooked through. Drain and season with sea salt. Set aside. 3. Place a large frying pan over medium heat. Add 2 tablespoons of the the olive oil (cook meat in pan first if adding meat to the dish) along with the chopped onion, carrots, garlic and celery. Cook until everything is cooked through and softened. Add the mushrooms, breaking them into smaller pieces if necessary. Add the can of diced tomatoes. Let cook until mushrooms are cooked through. Season with salt and pepper. 4. Place the cooked cauliflower in a food processor or high powered blender along with 2 Tablespoons olive oil, the nutritional yeast, dash of salt and thyme leaves. Blend until smooth. It will look and taste like mashed potatoes! 5. Pour the veggie mushroom mixture into a 8x11 glass dish. Spread the cauliflower mash on top of the veggie mixture. Bake in the oven for 20min. Serve and enjoy! Be Unstoppable,

#WholeFoodPlantBased #vegan #Dinner