Vegan MoFo 2011: Ghoulish Shepherd’s Pie
Just in time for this Halloween, one last Vegan MoFo Recipe from our lovely guest blogger, Snarky Vegan (aka Julia Moran Martz). She had a super time with Allison’s Vegan Shepherd’s Pie recipe as you’ll see below. It’s such a warming and comforting meal any time of year, but we absolutely LOVE the Halloween twist Julia adds to it! What do you think? What are your favorite recipes for Autumn? Halloween? Let us know over on Facebook and Twitter!
Ok, so I’m on a ghost roll. I love Halloween and just couldn’t come up with any other ideas for the mashed potatoes on Allison Rivers Samson’s Shepherd Pie recipe printed in her award-winning VeganizeIt! column in VegNews magazine.
Of course, other folks have created better mashed potato ghosts than mine. My first effort at making mashed potato ghosts is a bit amateurish but I’m sure with practice they could resemble those ghosts by these other masters.
Use a zippered sandwich bag with the corner cutoff to squeeze out easy ghosts made from mashed taters on shepherd’s pie. Push in lentils for eyes before baking.
This Shepherd’s Pie is perfect, even DH said so.
You may have read here that my hubby is rather picky about food so if he likes something, it’s got to be good, right? Yep. This is a great Fall/Winter dish that will definitely become a regular around here because it’s healthy and something hubs will eat.
Reprinted here with permission by Allison Rivers Samson and VegNews magazine. Any changes on my part are noted.
6 servings
Ingredients:
- 3 1/2 cups yellow potatoes, dices, cooked and mashed
- 1/4 cup non-hydrogenated margarine
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, divided
- 1/4 cup unsweetened non-dairy milk
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 3/4 cup chopped onions
- 1 cup slices mushrooms
- 1/2 cup diced carrots
- 1/4 cup diced celery
- 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
- 2 tablespoons barley flour
- 1/2 teaspoon dried marjoram
- 1/2 teaspoon celery seed
- 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1/4 teaspoon paprika
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 3/4 cup vegetable broth
- 2 cups cooked French lentils, drained well
- 1 tablespoon minced fresh parsley
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vegan Worcestershire sauce
- 4 teaspoons tamari
- 1/2 cup frozen peas
Steps:
- Preheat oven to 350°F. In a large bowl, combine mashed potatoes with margarine, 1 teaspoon salt and non-dairy milk. Set aside.
- In a large saute pan over medium head, add oil and onions. Saute for 2 minutes. Add mushrooms, carrots and celery. Cook for 2 minutes. Add garlic and saute for 1 minutes. Add flour and stir until absorbed. Stir in marjoram, celery seed, thyme, paprika, remaining salt, and pepper. Cook for 1 minute, and then stir in broth. Continue to stir frequently until the mixture comes to a slow boil. Stir in lentils, parsley, Worcestershire, tamari and peas, then remove from heat.
- Transfer mixture to a deep pie dish or a 9×13-inch casserole. Spread the mashed potatoes on top of the vegetable mixture in the dish. Use the tips of a fork to rake across the top of the mashed potatoes, making a rough surface to facilitate a brown crispy top.* Bake for 40 minutes, or until potatoes are browned. Serve hot.
*I used ramekins to make single portion pies with an individual ghost for each pie. Glad I put them on a baking sheet to bake because they did cook over the sides.
Just look at how yummy the pie is under the ghost!
Tired Wench Tips:
- Make a stash of lentils up to 3 days prior.
- Use frozen carrot and pea mix to cut back on some chopping.
- Buy pre-sliced mushrooms.
- Make both the taters and vegetable mixture in advance and assemble for dinner after work. Not sure I’d put the mashed potatoes on the veggies ahead of time because I don’t know if they’d merge into a goo. You can nuke a side dish of veggies and set the table while this is baking.
Now pardon me while I go determine how many leftovers to eat for lunch. It’s difficult to determine this when you have to share with someone else.
Great job, Julia! It’s ghostly delicious looking. 
18 Vegan MoFo Recipes You Have to Try!
October has flown by… like a pumpkin with wings. Of course, the vegan food options just get better as we get closer to the 
holidays. And October was a pretty delicious month too, especially if you were participating in Vegan MoFo! We enjoyed the interpretations of Allison’s very own VegNews Veganize It! recipes from Julia Moran Martz (Snarky Vegan) and Heather Blackmon (Better With Veggies). Check out their recipes below and let us know your favorites. Did you try any of these at 
home? What was your biggest yummm during Vegan MoFo? We want to know about your favorite vegan recipes on Facebook and Twitter. Have a spooky, safe and sweet Halloween!
Frittata (version 1-Snarky Vegan)
Frittata (version 2-Better With Veggies)
Lentil Loaf (version 1-Snarky Vegan)
Lentil Loaf (version 1-Better With Veggies)
Tuna Free Salad Sandwiches (version 1-Snarky Vegan)
Tuna Free Salad Sandwiches (version 2-Better With Veggies)
And you can check out all of Allison’s original Award-Winning Veganize It! recipes here.
Healthy Habits for the Holidays
I kept trying to write other posts for this week, but all I want to write about is the coming holidays. We’re getting ready for the winter rush here at Allison’s, so I guess I have Thanksgiving and Christmas on my mind. For me the holidays are both exciting and stressful. I’m looking forward to spending time with my family, and to eating all that delicious food, of course. 
But I’m not so looking forward to putting on those extra pounds that always seem to come with the onset of winter. Every year I try to plan ahead to relieve some of my stress from last-minute holiday shopping. This year I have some ideas for applying that same logic to staying healthy and fit through all those family meals and long, chilly nights.
My first step is going to be establishing healthy eating habits now. I love summer, when I can eat my fill of salads, veggie stir-frys and tomato sandwiches without feeling like I need to watch my portion sizes. But as summer turns to fall I start craving richer, warming food like Cream of Broccoli Soup and Baked Ziti. 
These recipes are so delicious I could eat an entire pot of soup by myself. Since they’re vegan versions, they have larger-than-normal amounts of veggies in them and they’re cholesterol-free because they don’t have the dairy and eggs of traditional recipes. Still, I know that eating an entire casserole dish of pasta, as delicious as it would be, would not actually make me feel very good in the long run. So, this winter I’m going to savor every bite of one serving of my favorite savory dishes and then fill up on greens and whole grains. Leaving room, or course, for vegan cookies or maybe some hot cocoa for dessert. 
Sweets make me happy, and that’s important too.
Exercise is the other important part of feeling good that I need to do for myself. My favorite physical exercise is Nia, a dance-based movement class that gets me moving and sweaty while making me ecstatically happy. But, as life got busier this summer, and my finances got tighter, I’ve let my Nia studio membership run out. I know it’s important for me to get back in some kind of exercise routine this fall, especially as the onset of cold, wet weather makes me want to do nothing but curl up on the couch with a movie or good book. So, whether it’s walking, biking, or going back to Nia, my intention is to stay active this winter, even in the rain.
I hope that by getting used to healthy portions sizes, a good balance of greens, grains and proteins in my diet and regular exercise now, those habits will sustain me through the delicious holidays in happiness and good health. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Allison Creates a No-Fart Frittata: Yummy in the Tummy and Easy on the Gut
Well, we maybe wouldn’t have been so…snarky by calling it a ‘No-Fart Frittata’, but leave it to Snarky Vegan to say what many of you were probably wondering! This is one of our favorite recipes from Allison, and we love how Julia breaks it down here for her Vegan MoFo version. Have you made a soy-free vegan frittata yet? It’s a fluffy, creamy treat any time of year.
When I think of veganizing frittata or quiche, I automatically think of tofu as the egg susbstitute and then I give up because I’m not a big fan of tofu. It’s almost become the standard vegan crutch and too much soy can cause gastronomical issues in some people.
So when I saw that Allison had created a frittata without soy, I got super intrigued. Then I saw how simple it was to make and got really tweaked about the possibilities. I began fanticizing about using the basic mixture for quiche, terrines…even savory custards.
Then I got even more excited because I could use Allison’s recipe to make mini-frittatas for lunch bentos. This would be not only healthy but a yummy compassionate protein to go with a salad or side veggies. AND it would be easy to manage portion control, something I struggle with daily…ok, hourly.
I doubled the recipe so I’d have enough batter to make some mini frittatas in a muffin tin. I lined the tin with parchment to make them easier to remove later.
A great thing about frittata is that you can use almost any vegetable in the mix so it’s totally seasonal. Spring spinach and asparagus, Summer tomatoes and eggplant, Fall beans and zucchini, they’d all work well.
Italian Frittata
Reprinted here with permission by on Allison Rivers Samson from her VeganizeIt! column in VegNews magazine. Any changes on my part are in parentheses or noted with asterisks.
6 servings, if you aren’t a hoarder.
Ingredients:
- 4 cups water
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 1/2 cups garbanzo bean flour
- 1/4 cup margarine
- 1 cup onion, quartered and cut into thin slices
- 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
- 1/4 teaspoon dried marjoram
- 2 cups broccoli florets cut into small pieces*
- 1/4 teaspoon kala namak
*After doubling the recipe, I added 1 box of chopped frozen spinach in lieu of doubling the broccoli. I also added about a cup of Daiya mozzarella shreds to the hot mixture and then used some extra as topping with the asparagus spears.
Steps:
- Oil a 9-inch tart pan (I used a pie plate). In a medium saucepan (large if you’re doubling recipe) over medium heat, add water and salt. Gently whisk in the garbanzo bean flour to combien completely. Whisk occasionally as the mixture begins to boil to prevent it from sticking to the bottom of the pan. As it begins to thicken, reduce heat to low and cook uncovered for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Meanwhile, place a saute pan over low-medium heat and add margarine and onions. Saute for 5 minutes, then add basil and marjoram and cook for another 5 minutes. Add broccoli and cook for an additional 5 minutes (this is where I added my defrosted spinach as well). Turn off heat.
- In a large bowl, combine cooked garbanzo bean mixture, vegetables and kala namak until well mixed. Spread evenly into oiled dish. Cool completely in the refrigerator for two hours. This step imparts the egg-like texture so don’t skip it.
- Preheat oven to 350, then bake frittata for 20 minutes (I baked for 30 because my oven is weird). Move frittata to broiler rack and broil for 3-5 minutes, until the top has browned (I have a small apartment-sized stove and skipped this step because the last time I used the broiler the smoke detector took issue).
The overall texture after baking is fluffy and creamy. The taste is also very yummy and savory due to sauteing the vegetables before blending.
When warm, the slices are a tad loose but they do firm up after cooling which will make them perfect for including in lunch bentos. I really gotta get a decent stove with a broiler that doesn’t cause too much smoke.
Tired Wench Tips:
- This recipe required a set-up time of no less than two hours in the fridge. Overnight if possible. That means that it’s an easy make-ahead dish that only takes 20-30 minutes to cook when you’re ready. So make it Sunday for Monday morning breakfast or a quick comforting dinner after work.
- Likewise, make ahead mini-frittatas in muffin tins to use in lunch boxes throughout the week. Accompany with a side salad and some fruit (strawberries, banana, apple, etc) for a healthy lunch.
- Or do what I did and double the batch, make a frittata in a pie dish for dinner then make the minis for lunches.
- If you’re a penny pincher, grate the broccoli stems and incorporate into the batter with the florets.
- And my favorite tip, if you don’t feel like chopping a bunch of veggies, buy chopped frozen veggies instead. All you really must chop is the onion. Sorry, there’s no way around that.
Great tips, Julia! We love the side ideas!
Vegan MoFo Month and Mindful Vegan Eating
This Vegan MoFo month is flying by too fast! We hope you’re eating well and learning lots! Two things that are definitely 
lasting are the yummy recipe contributions from our delightful guest bloggers: Snarky Vegan’s Julia Moran Martz and Better with Veggies’ Heather Blackmon. Have you seen their latest versions of Allison’s Veganize It recipes? We’ve been posting them here on Monday’s and throughout the week on Facebook and Twitter. Good stuff for sure, especially this incredible version of BLT from Heather. YUM.
We’ve got pumpkin on the brain this week! Fall is so full of colors and flavors, it truly is a magical time of year. What fun pumpkin recipes will you be cooking up over the next few months? One that I absolutely love comes from one of our favorite vegan chef’s—Urban Vegan Dynise Balcanage’s pumpkin risotto. Not only is her risotto recipe a delicious and healthy, creamy meal, but it’s a mindful one, too. The constant stirring and measuring the softness of the rice as liquid fills each grain is a meditation and opportunity to really connect with food in such a lovely way. (Find her risotto recipe and many other greats here.) Mindfulness in food is so important to us here at Allison’s that we actually updated our organizing system so that you can better identify and understand our product selection. Take a look and let us know what you think!
One of our Twitter friends asked us for a quick vegan lunch recipe. We recommend Allison’s Amazing Veganize It! Vegan Alfredo recipe. It’s easy, filling and oh so creamy –a delectable meal for the month all about yummy vegan meals. Let us know your favorite quick or not-so-quick recipes of the month. Sweet eats!
