seitan shepherd's pie

a take-off of an old classic.this is how it's done.

boil potatoes with skins. a bunch of 'em. say 3-4 lbs. 

the original recipe calls for slicing zucchini length-wise, frying them until almost cooked, and placing them along the bottom of the baking pan.  i've done that before, and it is delicious (especially for the month of august, b/c it uses up some of the massive amounts of zucchini around the house) but it's also more work.  so i've modified it a tad, and just:

-stir fry all of my favorite vegetables in olive oil: garlic, onions, broccoli, kale, peppers, parsnips, etc.  -then toss in some savory herbs: thyme, sage, rosemary, oregano, parsley...etc. whatever you prefer. add some nutritional yeast, balsamic and sun dried tomatoes if you got 'em (they'll add lots of tang) at the end of the cooking. put the whole mixture at the bottom of the casserole dish.

-cook seitan however you prefer: dry baked, boiled, fried. i usually fry it with pepper and thyme. put that on top of the veggies in a flat layer.

-now, if you have lots of extra veg, place 'em on top of the seitan layer.  if not,

-mash those potatoes in your favorite way.  i usually just do garlic mashed potatoes and add a bit extra butter/margarine and (soy) milk to make the potatoes extra wet (which you need, b/c the whole pot pie will be baked for a good long while, and dry out the potato mash).

bake it all at 350 for 45 minutes.

sprinkle nutritional yeast over the top, and you have yourself a hardy meal.