Harvest Greens Shepard’s Pie

What do peas, broccoli stems, over-cooked-rice and seiten have in common?  Yep. Absolutely nothing.  This recipe was spawned from a need to use up random bits that had accumulated in my fridge.  (What does one do with broccoli stems normally?) Literally, this dish is a casserole.  Food-mush mixed together and then heated in a dish.  But, I’d like to think of it as a vegan version of the Shepard’s Pie using green vegetables.  Sounds a little more palatable.

Have fun with the recipe.  There are probably more variations to come with the changing produce seasons.

Ingredients:

½ clove garlic, finely minced

1 tbsp parsley, chopped

¼ tsp sea salt

1 tbsp white wine vinegar

¼ onion, coarsely chopped

Broccoli stems from 1 bunch, coarsely chopped

            Or asparagus, cauliflower, Jerusalem artichoke etc.

½ cup peas

1 tbsp pumpkin seeds

½ 8oz.pk of seitan, cut into ½ inch chunks

½ cup cooked rice

3 tbsp soy milk

1 tbsp nutritional yeast

Coconut/olive oil for greasing crockpot

Shoyu + cilantro (for garnishing, optional)

Directions:

Crank your crockpot up to the HIGH setting before preparing the pie guts.

Whilst the crock-pot is warming, mix the first 4 ingredients together in a small-medium bowl.  Add the chopped onion, broccoli stems, peas, pumpkin seeds and seitan to the vinegar-garlic mixture and toss.  Set the pie filling aside to marinade a bit.

To prepare the pie topping, mix the nutritional yeast, soy milk and cooked rice together in a mug or small bowl.  Reheat the mixture in a microwave (or substitute the milk with hot water).  With a fork, mash the mixture until it resembles really mushy porridge or mashed potatoes.

Return to the crockpot!  Liberally oil the pot with coconut/ olive oil using the paper-towel method. (Apply oil to a folded paper towel and generously rub over the inside of the pot to distribute).  Transfer the pie filling mixture into the pot and then drop dollops of the rice-mash onto the filling.  Using a spatula, smooth the rice-mash over the pie filling.  For extra flavor, sprinkle the top of the pie with about a tsp of shoyu.  This will help the pie “brown” in the crockpot.

Set the crockpot on LOW and let it be for about 45 to 60min.

When the pie is done cooking, gently ease it out of the pot.  Gentle is the key word here, people.  Too much vigor will result in a Shepard’s Pie dump-pile on your plate—which is more or less what mine looks like.

Regardless, it will taste scrumdiddliumptious. Top it all off with a touch of cilantro (or basil) and start feasting.

Currently catching up on the last few episodes of Bones: Season 5.  This pie made and excellent T.V. dinner if do say so myself.  Also, a random question to anyone who is actually reading this, have you tried any of my recipes? If yes, which one?  If no, tsk tsk. Get cooking!

Cheers, kaite ;]