A Phoenix Suns Homage: Vegetarian Shepherd's Pie

Do you ever wake up in the morning and think about how much better life would be if it was only 1993 again and the glorious Phoenix Suns were killing it in the Western Conference Finals? I'm constantly daydreaming about Dan Majerle's amazing 3-pointer skillz, Oliver Miller's impossibly long arms, and Kevin Johnson's good looks.

As an homage to my favorite sports team from the early 90's, I decided to make a vegetarian Shepherd's Pie, decked out in purple and orange.

I started by cutting up carrots and de-shelling snap peas.

Using snap peas is not recommended. It took forever to take the shells off and this time could have been spent doing something better, like fantasizing about being productive while watching reruns of Teen Mom.

Then I put some olive oil, garlic, and shallots in the pan before dumping in 1/3 of a bottle of IPA and a bag of Morning Star Farms veggie crumbles. I let these items simmer while I speculated about what the "Z" in Cedric Z. Ceballos stands for.

I concluded the answer was probably Zesty, and moved on to the purple potatoes that I mashed up with some garlic and butter.

As I spread all these ingredients into the pie crust, I made sure to sample generous portions of everything. I take the advice I learn from Tom Colicchio on top chef very seriously.

After everything was in the pie crust, I found the orangest cheese I could find and shaved it all over the top. After baking it for about 15 minutes, I had a vegetarian pie fit for the Phoenix Suns gorilla. I'm sure KJ would be proud.