LAB NOTES: Gardener’s Pie: Kitbash Edition

     Hello All,
Wayne AKA the Mad Food Scientist here.
This time around, I’m kitbashing a vegan Gardener’s Pie. What’s a Gardener’s Pie you may ask? It’s akin to a Shepherd’s or Cottager’s Pie, but no meat is used. In this case, no animal products are going to be used. 
I’m repurposing and tweaking the Lentil Ragout that I picked up from Ms. Kathryn at the Tasty, Thrifty, Timely blog and YouTube Channel.Ms. Kathryn cooks the lentils in vegetable broth, or stock. For the lasagna, and chili non carne that I’ve made with the Lentil ragout I cooked the lentils in diced tomatoes. This time around, I’m going to use tomato juice. I’m also implementing something new for the blog. For ingredients in the recipe that I’ve made and have posted on the blog already, I’ll be inserting a clean link pointing to that post so I don’t end up writing a novel of a post. 

17 November, 2024: Vegan Gardener’s Pie Experiment #01

LENTIL RAGOUT:
1 454g/16oz bag of Lentils
1 170g/6oz Tomato paste
2 1360g/46oz Cans Tomato juice
2 Onions diced
1 Hand Celery diced
1kg/2.2lbs Turnips: Roasted chunked ( https://dcl.accelsim.com/2024/11/23/lab-notes-roasted-turnips/ )
1 454g/16oz Bag of Baby carrots diced
1 340g/12oz Bag Riced Cauliflower
1 340g/12oz Bag Green Beans
1 340g/12oz Bag Peas
1 340g/12oz Bag California Blend
1 340g/12oz Bag Sweet corn
2 TBSP Sunflower Seed Oil
 72g/.5 cup Nutritional yeast
2 TBSP Mushroom powder
1 TBSP Ground Ginger
1 TBSP Ground Mustard
1 TBSP Red Pepper Flakes
1 TBSP Ground Cumin
1 TBSP Chili Powder
2 TBSP Homemade Vegan Worcestershire ( https://dcl.accelsim.com/2024/10/27/lab-notes-vegan-worcestershire-sauce-take-ii/ )
1 TBSP Sriracha
1 TBSP Tobasco Sauce
1 TBSP Gochujang
1 TBSP Better Than Bullion Roast Vegetable Soup Base
1 TBSP Marmite
1 tsp baking powder ( For soaking )
2 Palmfuls Oregano
2 Palmfuls Basil
Split Pea and Sunflower seed solids 

METHOD: 
Soak the lentils in water and 1 tsp of baking powder.
Rinse and drain.
Dice the onions, celery, and carrots.
Heat the sunflower seed oil in the bottom of your stockpot.
When at temperature add the onions celery and carrots and saute
When done sautéing add a can of tomato juice and tomato paste.
Add the lentils.
Add the second can of tomato juice.
Add the other vegetables
Add the seasonings.
Stir, bring to a boil, then drop to a simmer.
Cook until the lentils are done.
Add the roasted turnip cubes

GARDENER’s PIE: 

INGREDIENTS:
Lentil Ragout
Mashed Roasted Potatoes ( https://dcl.accelsim.com/2024/11/23/lab-notes-restaurant-grade-mashed-roasted-potatoes-and-turnips/ )
Mashed Roasted Turnips ( https://dcl.accelsim.com/2024/11/23/lab-notes-roasted-turnips/ )
Nutritional yeast

METHOD:
Preheat airfryer/oven to: 200C/400F
In a pie plate add the Lentil Ragout
Cover with Roasted Mashed Potatoes and Turnips.
Use a spatula to smooth the Topping.
Sprinkle on a bit of vegan Worcestershire sauce.
Sprinkle with Nutritional yeast
Bake at 200C/400F for 30 minutes
Put under the Broiler for 2 minutes.

LAB NOTES: 17 November, 2024:
This time around for the Lentil ragout, I chose to go with tomato juice instead of
diced tomatoes.
I added a TONNE of vegetables to the Ragout.
For the potatoes, I won’t cut them into such small pieces next time.
Also, for next time, I think I’ll start the first 30 minutes with the oven preheated to 220C/425F and do the second 30 minutes at 200C/400F.
Additionally, I was a little too enthusiastic in putting the Lentil ragout into the pie plates and had a bit of overflow. I think the dusting of nutritional yeast atop the roasted mashed potato/turnip topping added a nice touch.

OBSERVATIONS: 17 November, 2024
I will definitely be making this again. 
The roasted mashed potato topping is phenomenal!
I had some after the first pie cooled a bit and it tasted phenomenal!
I suspect it will be like lasagna and be easier to dish up tomorrow after it’s fully cooled and been in the refrigerator.
There’s enough Lentil ragout that I suspect that I will be making more pies midweek.

OBSERVATIONS: 20 November, 2024
I can confirm cutting the potatoes into larger chunks and roasting them at 220C/425F and 200C/400F worked better.
I made two more Gardener’s pies and the roasted potatoes turned out much better.
I had planned on making this for U.S. Thanksgiving, but I may save this back for Christmas.
I’m not sure, for now, what I’ll make. For photos of the roasted turnips, and the roasted mashed potatoes and turnips see the respective blog posts.
If you have any comments, suggestions, or ideas of something you’d like me to try out. Please do use the Contact button and send it on over.

In the meantime, I’ll continue to Fool Around And Find Out in the Domestic Culinary Laboratory.