Vegan Shepherds Pie

This recipe is adapted from"Meals without Meat" by the mother of NZ cooking, Alison Holst, and her vegetarian son, Simon.  I highly recommend this book - lots of tasty meals that are inexpensive and will satisfy many "meat" eaters also.  A great place to start if you want to gradually incorporate some meatless meals into your diet.

Ingredients:
A) Potato Topping
1 kg of potatoes
2 tablespoons vegan margarine (I used Nuttelex olive)
Half cup soy milk

B) Hearty Vegan Mix
2 large onions (this time I used 1 onion and half of a large leek that was left over from the Corn Chowder)
2 cloves garlic
Good splash of olive oil
400gm Mushrooms
3 tablespoons plane flour
1 generous teaspoon each of
- basil
- oreganum
- marjoram
- paprika
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
3 teaspoons veggie stock powder
2 tins red kidney beans, drained (or you could soak/pre-boil one cup of kidney beans)
4 tablespoons tomato paste
1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
1.5 cups of water

Method:
1. Put the potatoes on to boil in lightly salted water.
2. Brown the onions and garlic in the olive oil until medium brown - do not rush this step
3. Add the mushrooms and cook until reduced and lightly browned
4. Add the flour and cook until browned - you need to keep stirring at this point but don't worry if it gets a bit stuck to the bottom as it will add to the hearty flavour as it lifts off when the water is added.
5. Add all the rest of the ingredients and heat until it is cooked through.
6. Drain the potatoes thoroughly and then mash with margarine and soy milk.  I get out the electric beater and give them a good whipping.
7. Assemble in a lasagna dish or similar - with Hearty Vegan Mix on the bottom and Potato mash on top
or - if you have more time (or just really like pies) then line 2 pie dishes with shortcrust pastry, bake blind for ~ 10 minutes then assemble the pie.
8. Spread a little melted margarine on top so that it browns nicely.  I sprinkled some paprika on top of mine this time but I think it looks nicer without so I will leave it off next time.  Then bake at 180 degrees Celsius for 20 minutes.
9.  Enjoy!  Serve it with some steamed greens to make it a more balanced meal.  I served it with Brussel sprouts and green beans which complimented the pie really well.

The original recipe uses capsicum but unfortunately it gives me indigestion so I have always used mushrooms instead and it works really well.

We thoroughly enjoyed out dinner.  And the pie is even better the next day (who doesn't love leftovers).  Definitely a recipe I will come back to regularly.

*** For my faux pas with Worchestershire sauce see the comments below.  Oops!