Garden Keeper’s Pie with Beets, Lentils & Creamy Celery Root Mash

Name: Garden Keeper’s Pie with Beets, Lentils & Creamy Celery Root Mash
Prep time: 45 min
Cook time: 95 min
Total time: 140 min
Ingredients: 1 tablespoon olive oil; 1 cooking onion, diced; 2 cloves of garlic, minced; 1 sprig of rosemary, leaves minced; 4 sprigs of thyme, leaves removed and divided; pinch of chili flakes, optional; 2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar; 5 cups-worth of small diced root or tuber vegetables or squash (I used a mix of butternut squash, carrots & beets); ⅓ cup black or french lentils, rinsed; 2 ½ cups vegetable stock; 1 teaspoon tamari soy sauce; sea salt, to taste; ground black pepper, to taste; 2 teaspoons arrowroot powder; 1 tablespoon cold filtered water; 3 cups peeled and diced celery root; 2 cloves of garlic, peeled; 1 ½ tablespoons olive oil, plus extra; ¼ cup unsweetened non-dairy milk

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Garden keeper's pie is a cozy vegan main course with beets, lentils, herbs, and a creasy celery root topping. Perfect for a holiday meal.

garden keeper's pie w/ beets, lentils + creamy celery root mash

pulling up celery roots // @thefirstmess

for a garden keeper's pie w/ beets, lentils + creamy celery root mash // @thefirstmess

When my inbox is multi-paged, the bills are piling up, there’s drama at work, or when I’ve just had one of those days, you can find me out in the garden with my big girl boots on, just getting dirty and feeling the feelings. Later on, you’ll find me making a garden keeper’s pie ;)

I planted a lot of things this year, all successful in some way or another. I still have some greens out there, but I saved the pulling of my absolute favourite vegetable for when the Fall was certifiably cool. The celery roots. The ones that look like baby aliens, but taste like absolute heaven. Creamy textured, sweet, kinda grassy like parsley, and celery-like.

But mine were so small! Nothing at all like those big, knubby, market ones. Lots of green leafy stalks and tangled up roots full of dirt, ie lots of bits to cut around before you had any real food. My dad advised that I put them in a low spot of the garden for maximal water absorption and then further explained why they can be a bit pricy: they have to take up so much real estate and so much water for so long! Next year I’ll get it right. In the meantime, I managed to scrounge up just enough for two dinners’ worth.

One night I roasted some rough dices with other roots and squash, served it with a spicy gingered quinoa pilaf and a wispy knot of kale, apple and fennel slaw on top. And the other, I served clouds of puréed celery root on top of these little pies–garden keeper’s pies as I’m calling them. I made some small dices of beets, carrots and butternut squash and slowly cooked them down with black lentils, vegetable stock, garlic, and rosemary. Small additions of balsamic vinegar and tamari round the flavours out.

I know all of my American pals are coming up on Thanksgiving, so I wanted to offer up a main course option for the vegetable lovers. Side dishes can be a vegan/vegetarian’s closest pal at the holiday table, but a thoughtful main can make the heart glow just a bit fonder. For more holiday inspiration, check out this roundup right here.