SHEPHERD'S PIE (Seitan version)

I love this dish....very British Pub food.  It's got peas, carrots, baby onions and most of all mashed potatoes. Also known as Cottage pie it was originally made with beef or lamb (mutton).  Since we don't eat that way anymore, we're using seitan (here's a link to a link), but you can use TSP or TVP.

1 1/2 cups of ground seitan or hydrate's textured vegetable protein
1 cup fresh or re-hydrated mushrooms (portabello or shitake)
1 cup frozen peas
1 cup frozen pearl onions
1 1/2 cups carrots diced
2 cups RVS (Roasted Vegetable Stock)
2 Tbs tomato paste
1/2 cup dehydrated onions
2 Tbs no beef bouillon
1/4 cup ketchup
1 1/2 tsp dry thyme
2 Tbs Annie's Worcestershire
4 large russet potatoes
2 cups almond milk
Fine Sea Salt to taste
White Pepper to taste


Put your peeled potatoes into a large pan of cold water and bring to a boil.  Continue boiling until fork tender, then drain the water and leave the potatoes in the pan until all of the water evaporates.  Mash the potatoes and add the almond milk, about 1 1/2 tsp of salt and 1 teaspoon white pepper.  If they're too dry, add more almond milk.  If they're too wet, they'll be able to dry out in the oven.

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

If you're using seitan, put the seitan and mushrooms in a food processor and pulse until you get the consistency of meat crumbles.  If you're using TSP, TVP or ready made meat crumbles, only pulse the mushrooms.  Add the meat crumbles, mushroom crumbles and all remaining ingredients except the Roasted Vegetable Stock in a large bowl.  Now you can slowly add the vegetable stock until you get a wet, sticky consistency but not runny, if that makes sense.  The variable here is how wet your meat substitute is.

Put the meat mixture in a 9 X 12 casserole (that's what I used, but you can use whatever you have).  Spread evenly and cover with the mashed potatoes.  Cover with aluminum foil and bake in the oven for 45 minutes.  Remove the foil and bake another 15.