SHEPHERD'S PIE (Lentil Version)

I've already posted a version of this with seitan but, since seitan is not easily found, I created a different version using lentils.  My very picky aunt even loved this.

Ingredients:

2 sweet onions chopped
2 celery ribs chopped
2 cups crimini mushrooms sliced
5 cloves of garlic rough chop
4 cups Roasted Vegetable Stock
2 teaspoons dried thyme crushed between your fingers
1 teaspoon granulated onion
1 teaspoon granulated garlic
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 tablespoons ketchup
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
2 teaspoons Tamari
1 cup Textured Soy Protein TSP
1 cup cooked lentils
1 cup frozen peas
1 large carrot peeled and sliced into rounds
4 medium Yukon Gold Potatoes
1/4 cup of my Sour Cream  or Aioli
1/2 cup almond milk
sea salt to taste (about 3/4 teaspoon) for the mixture and the same amount for the potatoes
white pepper to taste

Caramelize the onions in a non stick skillet.  Add the celery and mushrooms and sauté until soft.  Add the garlic and thyme and continue to sauté for about two minutes.  Add 2 cups of the Roasted Vegetable Stock and the granulated onion and garlic.  Mix well and reduce for about 5 minutes.  Add the tomato paste, ketchup, crushed red pepper, tamari and carrots. Mix well and add the TSP.  The TSP will begin to hydrate and soak in a lot of the moisture.  If it becomes too dry, add more stock.  Continue to cook the mixture for about 10 minutes until it reduces and there's not much stock left.  Add the lentils and peas, and if it becomes too dry again, add more stock.  You may have some stock left over at the end.

Quarter the potatoes and add to a pot of cold water.  Cook for about 25 minutes until they are fork tender.
Drain and mash adding the almond milk, sour cream, salt and white pepper.

In a baking dish add the vegetable lentil mixture.  Smooth out the top and add the mashed potatoes.  Loosely cover with aluminum foil and put in a preheated 350 degree over for 45 minutes.  Remove the aluminum and bake for another 15.  If you want, you can briefly put the pie under a broiler to get a little browning going on the top.

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 Also known as Cottage pie it was originally made with beef or lamb (mutton).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.