Vegan MoFo - Quick and Dirty Vegan Mince and Tatties

 Vegan MoFo's here!  Vegan MoFo's here!

I'm woefully unprepared because I'm super lazy.  Actually, true story - I had to come home while running errands because I really needed to pee.  I ended up not going back out for another 6 hours (give or take).  And when I did go back out, I just went to the wee Tesco, and all I could get of what I needed was tinned potatoes.  So, the decision about what to make for my first MoFo post was pretty much made for me.

My first Vegan MoFo post will be one in a series of veganized Scottish(ish) recipes.  The British get a lot of crap for having bland food, but some of it is actually pretty damn good (once you take the slaughter out of it).  The first time I had mince and tatties was at my friend Maureen's house when I was at uni.  I must have been over doing work - interviewing someone for some project - because, despite living in Scotland, Maureen was pretty much my only source of interviewable Scots of most age ranges.  I'm pretty sure we ended up being over there longer than expected, and the only thing she could think to cook for me was mince and tatties (since she could get vegan mince).  And she made it pretty much the way I'll describe here and thought it was alright, so I'm gonna say it's as close to authentic as you'll get without butchering a cow.

I based my recipe on this recipe, which I just found through Google.  As you'll see, mine takes way less time and is probably way healthier.  I call this quick and dirty because of the processed mince (rather than, say, ground seitan or TVP) and the tinned tatties.  Frankly, I think these ingredients are key.

Quick and Dirty Vegan Mince and Tatties

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 1 large carrot, sliced
• 1 tsp mixed herbs
• 1 3/4c beef-style stock or vegetable stock
• 1 1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce*
• 1 tsp liquid aminos or light soy sauce
• 1/4 tsp salt (or to taste)
• about 300g vegan mince
• 1 small tin new potatoes, cut evenly if necessary
• nooch (optional)

Directions:

In a large (at least 2 quart) sauce pan or Dutch oven, heat the oil over medium.  Add the onion and carrots and cook to your desired texture (3-10 minutes, from still crunchy to soft).  Add the herbs and cook another minute.  Add the stock, Worcestershire sauce, liquid aminos, and salt, then add the mince.  If cooking from frozen, cook until thawed, then add the potatoes.  Cook until the potatoes and mince are hot.  Adjust seasonings to taste (you might need more salt since the tatties will soak it up) and serve sprinkled with nooch (if you like it).  Serve with steamed veg to make it feel healthy, and eat it before you write a blog post or else it'll get cold.

*I used Tiger Tiger, but you should be able to find vegan Worcestershire sauce in the free from section of most mid- to large-sized stores (Tesco, Sainsbury's, etc.) and health food shops.

ETA - I just (28/12/2011) realised that I missed out the measurement for the stock!   If anyone actually tried this before, hopefully you realised it was meant to be 1 3/4 cups!  Sorry about that!