Day in the Life of an Idiot

 So, today, I spent some time talking to a friend in need of cheering and then made and delivered a vegan shepherd's pie to her. I kind of made up the recipe, though I extrapolated some of it from a recipe I found online for a vegan casserole.  Here's the recipe that I started with: https://afrovitalityeats.com/recipe/vegan-meat-and-potato-casserole/


I greased a casserole dish with vegan butter (I have Earth Balance around)

• 1 tablespoon vegan butter
• 1 tablespoon olive oil (yes, I used a bit of both. The crumbles are dry because they have no grease, so I added this much to mimic that texture.)
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, chopped
• 1/2 of a bag of meatless crumbles of your choice (I had Gardein, which I like in my vegan chili)
• a splash of Worcestershire sauce, no more than 1 tablespoon 
• a pinch of savory (if you need measurements for whatever reason, I would say use your smallest teaspoon, 1/8, or less.)
• 1/8 cup brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons of tomato paste (plus the same amount of water)
• random other veggies you might like (I had carrots and peas.) If you are making this for one or two, no more than a half or quarter cup of each. I thought of it too late, but you could add parsnips or corn or... really anything, I should think.
• enough mashed potatoes to make a nice topping-- I like potatoes and so if I were making this for myself it would be four or five cups, peeled and cubed? If you wanted, you could go full-on Midwestern and use tater tots instead.
• salt and pepper to taste.

Basically you fry up the onions and garlic with a bit of fake-butter and oil. Once those are nicely browned, add the non-meat. To that you add the Worcestershire sauce, savory, brown sugar, and tomato paste. Once that's nicely mixed you add par-boiled carrots and peas and whatever else you like in your shepherd's pie. Put the browned non-meat and veggies mix into the bottom of the greased casserole bowl. Top with mashed potatoes. Deliver to friend with cooking instructions (which are: heat the oven to 375 F and bake, covered, for 20-30 minutes or until heated through.)

I, of course, tasted a bit of the meatless mixture before putting it in the casserole and, if you're the sort of vegan who misses a "meaty" taste, I would say this one definitely could pass for grandma's tater tot ground beef hot dish. The brown sugar, tomato paste, and the Worcestershire sauce do it, I think. 

I have no idea if my friend will like it, since it's kind of low brow Midwestern comfort food, but, well, in this case, it really is the thought that counts.