I've decided from now on, Aaron is in charge of recipe development. See, he's much more adventurous than I am when it comes to flavor combinations. This recipe originated with an attempt to use an apple in a creative way. Of course my first thoughts.... apple dumplings, apple pie, etc. Not AT ALL creative. He simply says, "I like apples in savory dishes." Well, OK! I can work with that. And so the brainstorming began. We talked about using squash or some other seasonal produce since it's juuuuust about fall now. Then reminisced about how yummy his Cherry Rolled Pork was. For some reason I got fixated on taking one of my favorite Irish classics, Shepherd's Pie, and reinventing it. Sweet potatoes instead of regular potatoes, sage flavored sausage to replace ground beef and apples and Swiss chard to replace peas and carrots. So simple!
We didn't have the kids last night since they were at a birthday party sleepover so we sat around and talked about what we could do with this bit of freedom and realized we just liked being home. I know, we are so wild and crazy aren't we? Aaron worked on fixing the lock on our side door so we can now use it (yay!) and I got cooking. I wasn't sure if this would look better as one large pie or as several mini pies so I, of course, made both! As you can see, I ended up liking the look of the large pie but the mini pies are more fun and easy to eat so I could go either way next time. Yes, there will be a next time. These sweet little shepherd's pies were soooo good!! Hope you enjoy this dish as much as we did.
Sweet Potato Shepherd's Pie
Ingredients
- 8 medium sweet potatoes
- 2 lbs sage pork sausage 2 chubs
- 4 apples diced
- ½ onion diced
- 4 cups chopped swiss chard
- salt & pepper to taste
- ½ cup sour cream
- 2 tablespoon butter
- ¼ cup toasted walnuts
Instructions
- Boil sweet potatoes until soft all the way through. Drain and return to pot. Add sour cream, butter and salt and pepper to taste. Beat until smooth then keep lid on to retain warmth.
- Brown sausage in a large skillet. When cooked through remove sausage, reserving dripping in pan. Keep sausage in a warm spot.
- Add diced apples and onions to the sausage drippings. Cook until softened and onions are translucent. Remove and set aside in a warm spot.
- Cook down Swiss chard in skillet (about 2-3 minutes).
- In two pie pans layer cooked sausage, apples and onions, Swiss chard then mashed sweet potatoes. Top with toasted walnuts.
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