Scott Pilgrim Shepherd Pie

You know a comic series is truly great when it includes a recipe in its pages. Here is Stephen Stills's awesome Vegan Shepherd Pie recipe (as faithfully as I could reproduce it within the abhorrent, rigid structure of a recipe-book) from Scott Pilgrim Volume II. It is a great meal to make with a bunch of friends because it is a little labor-intensive and it makes enough to share. Go bond with your buddies and eat something delicious while you're at it! I recommend settling for the next best thing if you aren't willing to invest the effort to find actual vegetarian/vegan ingredients.

EQUIPMENT:

• Knife
• Pot (for boiling potatoes)
• Pan (for cooking the carrots and such)
• Fork (for mashing potatoes)
• Baking dish, casserole dish, or something that can withstand an oven while containing a lot of food.
• Willing labor

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 medium carrots
• 2 cloves Garlic
• Fake meat stuff
• vegan gravy mix (OR the vegan gravy you made using the recipe on this blog! I think the powder gravy works better overall, but you can definitely do this with non-powder gravy)
• 1 stick celery with leaves
• 4 potatoes
• 1 onion
• soy milk
• soy margarine
• red wine (I really do recommend red wine)
• the finest olive oil
• Optional: cooked spinach, sliced tomatoes, corn

TIME:

1.5 - 2 hours, if you only have a few willing choppers on hand; 1 hour if you can get everything chopped speedily.

DIRECTIONS:

1. Cut the potatoes up into smallish pieces. Leave on the skins if they look okay.
2. Cut up the onion, carrot, celery, and garlic as small as possible (NOTE: Stuff really does taste and look better when you try to chop things smaller. I encourage you to try it!). Use a food processor, or invite your friends and make them do all the work
3. Boil potatoes 15-20 mins until tender, then mash (NOTE: There isn't a special technique to mashing potatoes; just go at it with a fork. Be careful not to scratch your pot with the tines!)
4. Heat olive oil in pan, add vegetables, cook 15-20 mins until very soft. Especially the carrots, which are probably the hardest. Can add some red wine too.
5. Add fake meat.
6. Add gravy (powder form) (NOTE: It says this, but I've added regular gravy - not too much or else you'll have to cook off liquids forever - and the end result tasted fine)
7. Add soy milk and stir so everythig looks a bit saucy
8. Mash potatoes with soymilk and soy margarine. 
9. Get 9x13 baking dish or casserole and glop fake meat/veggi mix in
10. Make a layer of potatoes on top. In between, you can add a layer of slices tomatoes, cooked spinach, or corn.
11. Can serve as is, or bake in the oven to crisp it up on top.