Meatless Shepherd's Pie

A few weeks back my Friend Sherri posted a vegan Shepherd's Pie over on Vegan Cooking Club. This got me thinking. I am a great lover of shepherd’s pie and cottage pie. I did some growing up in the UK and it is standard fare there--great pub food. In my quest for Meatless Monday recipes I decided that I would take a stab at making a vegetarian version.

From what I understand and have been brought up to think, shepherd’s pie and cottage pie were inexpensive ways to stretch out meat in herding communities by adding a bunch of other things and topping with potatoes. Shepherd’s pie usually made with ground lamb and a gravy sauce. Cottage is made with beef and a tomato sauce base.

I made shepherd’s pie in cooking class as a 12-year-old in my 1st year of my English school. I remember making it, but for some reason that recipe is not in my lesson book from then. I always look there and then make it up but since I was planning on converting it to meatless, I decided I needed to start with a solid recipe.

I looked through all my cook books. I finally found a recipe for cottage pie that looked good and easy to convert in Graham Kerr's Smart Cooking. (For background Graham Kerr was once the Galloping Gourmet, he started to cook low fat and then minmax.  This is a cookbook from that era and so I felt that the little meat in it could be easily substituted.) So I set out to make it.

I started with the basic recipe that Mr. Kerr wrote, substituting the meat and the bulgur with texturized soy protein (TSP). I measured and stirred and tasted. With the tasting I came up ...”Hmm needs something”. I opened my freezer and found both white puree and green puree from The Sneaky Chef. I added some of both. It needed more veggies and I added peas. This was a good improvement but it still needed something. I began to think that I shouldn’t have skipped the bulgur and next time I won’t. I looked in my spice cabinet and added garlic salt and basil (I wanted sage but could not find it). I saw sesame seeds and added about a tablespoon of those. This made a big difference. One more thing I may add in the future is mushrooms.

So here is what I made:

Vicki’s Veggie Shepherds Pie--Round 1.

2 cups TSP/TVP
Fresh parsley
Fresh thyme
2 Carrots
1 onion
1 garlic clove
Garlic salt
Marjoram
Olive oil
Vegetable bullion and 1 7/8 cup water to rehydrate TVP
1/4 cup white
1/2 cup green
Can tomato paste
1 cup veg stock
Soy sauce
Frozen peas
Lots of mashed potatoes made with buttermilk
Cheese
Basil
Salt
Pepper
Nutmeg

Rehydrate TSP with veggie stock and water. Meanwhile brown onions and garlic in olive oil. Stir in half tomato paste and TSP. Add seasonings and sesame seeds. Combine Green and White with remaining tomato paste and add to mixture. Bring to a bubble. Add frozen peas.

Put into oven-safe casserole top with mashed potatoes. Top potatoes with cheese. Put in oven until hot and bubbling


Everyone liked it but we agreed it needed something more. We are thinking mushrooms.