Left Palate

SPREAD IT.

Cheeseburger Pie

I wish I had taken a picture of this, but it’s been eaten.

Anyhow, as a non-vegetarian who lives with a vegetarian, I am always on the lookout for meat recipes that could easily be converted to work with faux-meats. I have had varying success but last night I created a masterpiece. Please keep in mind that the goal is to avoid meat products, not to be healthy. This is probably one of the least healthy dishes I’ve made since the party-sized artichoke and spinach dip I made for TWO people on New Year’s Eve. It could easily serve 4 people, but Sam and I just about polished it off by ourselves (ascetics we are not).

You will need

1 frozen pie crust (make sure it’s vegetarian—some of these have lard)
The equivalent of 1 pound of ground beef (I used Trader Joe’s)
2 cups shredded cheese (we used sharp cheddar)
1/2 cup thinly sliced yellow onion
Seasonings: salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, dried shallots to taste
2 Tsp tomato sauce
Olive oil

Preheat oven to 375 (this is not a science—you could go higher or lower, this is just what I did and it worked)
Saute up your onions in some olive oil for about a minute or two
Add ground “meat” and seasonings
Cook until the onions are nice and translucent and the whole thing tastes delicious. Before you are done add in your tomato sauce. I also added in a little more olive oil so the whole thing didn’t dry out. (Meatless meat is way less fatty than real meat, so you want to fatten it up to make sure it tastes good)
Take your pan off the heat. Mix in 1 cup of your shredded cheddar.
Pour mixture into frozen pie shell
Cook at least 25 minutes (not an exact science, I have no idea how long I ended up cooking it for, but when I took it out after 15 mins the crust was not cooked through)
Uncover and top with remaining cup of cheese and cook until the crust is nice and golden (maybe another 10 minutes? When I make this again I’ll tell you)
Try not to eat it all at once.

— 3 months ago