YouPhood.com / For those who love food!

I myself prefer the real thing....so if you're a meat eater you can sub the veg meat with your favorite ground meat (chicken, turkey, veal, older cow...etc)

The ingredients »

• 1 tablespoon of paprika
• 1 teaspoon of pepper
• 2 teaspoons of kosher salt
• 4 tablespoons of butter
• 2 tablespoons of flour
• 1 cup of vegetable broth
• 1 x package of gimme lean (fake meat product)
• 3 x garlic cloves
• 1 x small to medium sized onion
• 1 x red, yellow or orange pepper
• 1 tablespoon of cumin
• 4 tablespoons of olive oil (enough to just coat bottom of pan)
• 1 x white wine splash (optional)
• 1 x package of instant mashed potatoes (4-6 servings)
• 1 x milk for instant mashed potatoes
• 1 x butter for instant mashed potatoes

How to make »

1. Chop the (red, orange or yellow) pepper and onion
2. Coat the bottom of pan with olive oil and begin sauteing the pepper and onion. About 5 min.
3. Chop garlic and add to the pan.
4. Add the gimme lean to the pan and begin to break it apart so it resembles large pieces of ground meat. If everything begins sticking to the bottom of the pan too much, add a splash of vegetable broth.
5. If you have white wine, add a splash of white wine and let it cook out for about 2-3 min. If you do not have wine, you can substitute vegetable broth.
6. Move the gimme lean/vegetable mix to one side of the pan. On the other side of the pan, add 2 tbs of butter. As the butter is melting, mix in 2 tbs of flour. Make sure all the flour and butter are combined.
7. Mix the flour/butter mixture with the gimme lean/veg mixture.
8. Add vegetable broth until a nice gravy forms around the mixture. I don't ever measure but I estimate about 1/2 cup should do it.
9. Mix in your salt, pepper, cumin and paprika. Pour everything into a casserole dish and set aside.
10. Make 4-6 servings of instant mashed potatoes following the package's instructions. You can make real mashed potatoes if you desire, but the instant kind work just as well here.
11. Spread the mashed potatoes evenly over the gimme lean/veg mix.
12. Cut the remaining butter into small pieces and spread them over the mashed potatoes.
13. Broil until the mashed potatoes are nice and golden. Keep an eye on it as this step only takes a few minutes. Enjoy!

Anything else »

I learned to adapt all my favorite "real meat" recipes into vegetarian ones for my boyfriend. This is what I came up with for Shepard's Pie. The secret is the "gimme lean" brand of fake meat. I tried many other brands....they all sucked. It has to be made with gimme lean to be edible. Take it from a real meat eater....this ain't bad considering there is no meat in it. I don't ever measure out my ingredients so these are my best guesses in the recipe. Remember you will need additional ingredients such as butter and milk for the instant mashed potatoes.