Shepherd’s Pie with a Gluten-free, Vegetarian Twist

I admit it…I have never had shepherd’s pie with meat in it. It never really looked that appealing to me. But once I became a vegetarian, I loved the idea of veggies with mashed potatoes in a pie form. We used to use vegetarian burger crumbles for the bottom, you know the ones I’m talking about. It looks somewhat like hamburger and tastes meaty and chewy. But since those are made of wheat gluten, that was put on the do-not-eat list years ago. What now? I make it frequently with Quorn tenders and it is quite good, but still not what I remember.

Shepherd’s Pie right out of the oven, yum!

Enter Amy’s Bistro Burgers, which are gluten free and vegetarian. Crumble them up and it’s the closest you can get to the texture of meat on the bottom. And before I get letters and comments, let me just say that I am not a big fan of trying to recreate meat in a vegetarian way. I just love the texture of something firm and chewy on the bottom of this type of pie and veggies just don’t get it. This seems to do the trick, and the entire pie was gone in two days (Mom came over and had dinner) including breakfast. Yum. Try it with your favorite veggies, although these work just fine for us. Use fresh veggies as much as you can, it’s just so much better.

Chock full of veggies, crumbles and potatoes

Veggie, GF Shepherd’s Pie

4 Amy’s Bistro Burger Patties, thawed and crumbled
1 sweet onion, chopped
1 tsp chopped garlic
salt/pepper
pinch of cumin

2 cups of fresh green beans, cleaned and chopped
1 cup fresh or frozen corn
1 TBS wheat-free tamari

2 cups mashed potatoes (homemade or store-bought)
1 TBS butter
salt/pepper/olive oil

1. Heat oven to 375
2. Saute onion till soft in a small bit of olive oil and salt.
3. Add burger crumbles, garlic, salt, pepper and cumin. Cook till browned.
4. Pour burger mixture into the bottom of a sprayed 9×9 glass baking dish.
5. Add green beans and 4 TBS water to the same pan (no need to clean it) and cover for about 5 minutes or until the water is steamed and beans are cooked slightly.
6. Add 1 Tbs olive oil and corn. (if corn is frozen, let it cook for a bit before going on to next step)
7. Add Tamari and let cook without stirring for a few minutes to let the veggies caramelize.
8. Spread veggie layer over burger layer in baking dish.
9. Prepare mashed potatoes the way you usually do. I used a fresh kind from Costco and just microwave it for a few minutes, then add a TBS of butter, salt and pepper.
10. Cover top of pie evenly with mashed potatoes and bake for 20 minutes.
11. Broil for 10 minutes under low to brown the top. Watch carefully, all ovens are different.
12. Let sit for a minute and serve.

Enjoy!

Summer means cherries & grilled corn and asparagus salad

Rainier cherries…get ’em while you can!

I love summer for one reason…the food. Living in Phoenix means we hibernate right about now and stay within AC at all times. And with the recent haboobs we’ve had (technical term for big damn dust storms), it’s getting to be a real pain to leave the house. Saturday morning outings to the farmers market is the only think I look forward to takes place outside. Asparagus, fresh corn, summer squash, oh my… Then the Ranier cherries hit the shelves and I’m in heaven.

Taking inspiration from the fresh veggies available right now, I searched for ideas on what to do with the veggies I had in the fridge. I had a large bunch of asparagus and 8 ears of fresh corn. I gave mom a few of the ears of corn and a handful of the asparagus, then set out to make a salad from the rest.

Grilled asparagus and corn salad

I decided to grill inside instead of standing outside in the 110-degree heat. If you’re someplace else in the country, you may be OK with standing outside. It still went pretty quickly. First, I grilled the corn a few at a time for just about 10 minutes…enough to grill and cook, but not overcook. Keep turning them and put a little olive oil and salt on it to keep it from burning.

Grilling brings out a fabulous smokey flavor!

Next, wash and trim the asparagus. These take a little less time and you just have to flip them once after about five minutes. Then another few minutes and they’re done. I did mine in two batches since I had so much. I love watching them get brown and lovely. It’s all I can do not to eat them right out of the pan.

Cut the corn off the cob, chop the asparagus into bite-sized pieces and mix. I added about a Tbs of olive oil, the juice and zest of one medium lemon, pinch of parsley, oregano and basil. A little more salt and pepper to taste and you’re done. Dear chef, don’t fret over it, just keep tasting till you get the right mixture. This is a light summer dish, so go easy on the lemon and keep adding a little more till you get it right. This was wonderful a little bit warm, and even better the next day after it cooled in the fridge. The lemon had a chance to settle into the asparagus, which was smoky and grilled and still crispy to the bite.

Enjoy your summer.

Quick and easy Summer Soycutash and Quorn

It’s 118 degrees in Phoenix today. Not the kind of day that makes you want to spend hours in the kitchen. Check your fridge and see what you have that can be made quickly. No, barbecuing is not an option…that means standing outside in the scorching heat. Not my idea of fun.

Quorn and Soycutash

I found a bag of Trader Joe’s Soycutash (corn, peppers, edamame), quickly sauteed it with some Quorn “chicken” tenders, added a bit of garlic, parsley and olive oil and done! Yummy, light and full of protein.

Tomorrow…salad!

Enjoy

Amazing Enchilada Pie

Gluten-free, Vegetarian Enchilada Pie

Since most enchilada sauce is made with flour to thicken it, I had mostly just given up on eating and making enchiladas. I thought the sauce was the most important part of the dish, right? Even canned sauce is suspect since I had a bad reaction once. But those days are over! I searched on the Internet to find out how to make my own enchilada sauce. Turns out, it’s not that hard. Using corn starch to thicken it makes it gluten free and adding the spices you want keeps it just as spicy as you like it. I read about 10 different recipes calling for all kinds of spices, flour, corn starch, etc. and decided to create my own…And after attempting to roll the tortillas, I gave up and decided it was easier to make this a layered pie instead. Still tasty and much easier, but if you feel like rolling, go for it.

I decided to fill it with veggie goodness since cheese enchiladas seems to be just a little overkill…but don’t get me wrong. I still love cheese as you can see from the photo. There’s plenty of cheese in there and if you’re rocking this vegan, just use your favorite soy/rice cheese in place of the cheese I’ve used. Still yummy!

Amazing Enchilada Pie
Sauce
1 28 oz. can diced tomatoes (I used Trader Joe’s)
1 6 oz. can of tomato paste (I used Trader Joe’s)
About a tsp of each of the following, then keep tasting and tweaking till it meets your tastes
  salt, pepper, garlic powder, dried epizote, dried parsley
(if you don’t have epizote, you can skip it. I just happen to have it as a gift from a friend)
2 tsp each cumin and chili powder
1 cup water
2 TBS corn starch

Enchiladas
1 doz. corn tortillas
1 sweet onion, chopped finely
2 cups frozen roasted corn (Trader Joe’s)
2 cans black beans
1 1/2 cups frozen spinach
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp ground pepper
2 cups grated Mexican cheese
olive oil

1. Preheat oven to 375 and spray a glass pie dish. This recipe actually made three pies, so cut it in half if you don’t need that much. Remember you can freeze them.
2. In a large pot, combine diced tomatoes (don’t drain), tomato paste, 1/2 cup water and spices. Stir until mixed and let simmer while you make the enchilada filling.
3. To make the filling, use a large skillet and add the onion in some olive oil and cook until tender. Add a pinch of salt to the onion.
4. When the onion is soft, add the corn, black beans, spinach and spices. Mix and let it simmer for about 15 minutes to blend the flavors.
5. Use an immersion blender and blend the sauce until smooth. (you can use a blender if you don’t have an immersion blender, but be careful since this is hot)
6. Mix corn starch with 1/2 cup of water and mix until corn starch is dissolved. Add it slowly to the sauce while stirring
7. Now it’s time to layer the pies. On the bottom of the glass baking dish, spoon enough sauce to just cover the bottom. Layer with tortillas by ripping up the tortillas if needed to make one layer. Spoon the bean/corn mixture evenly over the tortillas (about a cup), then cover with a sprinkling of cheese.
8. Repeat with another layer of tortillas, veggie mixture and cheese.
9. Top off the pie with another layer of tortillas, then spoon about a cup of sauce to cover the top. Make sure no tortilla is left uncovered since it will get hard and burn in the oven. Cover this layer with cheese.
9. Repeat in the remaining baking dishes.
10. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove and let them sit for about 10 minutes before serving.

This is the cheesy goodness that came out of the oven! Yum!

This recipe made just enough sauce for the three baking dishes. Next time, I may double the sauce recipe to have a little extra. Other than that, these are the best I’ve ever made, or eaten. Even my husband said the sauce and enchiladas were better than any restaurant. High praise!

Enjoy!