Beef and Sweet Potato Pasties

Since most of the vegetables I use for C's baby food is organic*, I always seem to end up with a lot of left over veg. This week, I needed sweet potatoes for a vegetable stock recipe. My local grocery store doesn't sell them individually, so I was faced with a rather large bag of sweet potatoes. I hate the thought of food waste, so I began to scan my recipe journals for a recipe that would help me do just that with the ingredients I had in the fridge and freezer already. I also needed to find something that would easily make a full second meal so that I could bring the dish to a friend who just had a baby. 

A few months ago, Real Simple magazine published an article about the foods that remind people of their cultures and families. This one recipe, inspired by traditional British fare, was so simple that I had to cut it out. However, the one problem was it was, well, too British. The servings were huge as written (it seemed like a LOT of meat for one sitting), and the lack of spices or herbs bothered me. As a result, I doctored the recipe a bit and created my own, one that relies on herbs and a little packaged gravy to create a comforting meal that is full of flavor and warmth (especially when it decides to SNOW IN APRIL!!)

You need:

1.5 lbs. ground beef (80% lean)
3 small sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
1 vidalia onion, peeled and diced
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced
2 tsp. Herbes de Provence
Salt and Pepper
4 c. flour
1 1/4 c. cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 egg, whisked (for egg wash)
1 pkg. Simply Organic Brown Gravy Mix

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, combine meat, potatoes, onion, garlic, herbs, 1 tsp. salt and 1/4 tsp. pepper. Set aside. In the bowl of a food processor, add flour and butter. Process until the mixture resembles course crumbs. Slowly add 2/3 c. cold water until dough comes together. Separate the dough into 8 portions and form into disks. Let sit for ten minutes. Sprinkle a little flour on a workable surface, and roll the disks into flat circles. In the center of each circle, evenly distribute the meat mixture.  Gather the sides of the dough around the filling and press the edges together to form a seam on top and crimp the seam. Brush with egg wash. Transfer to a parchment-lined baking dish. Bake until golden brown, about 1 1/2 hours. Just before they are done, prepare the gravy according to the package directions. After plating the pasties, pour some gravy over the top of each. Serve with your favorite veg!

(serves 8 - or 4 very hungry people!)