Warm Fall Vegetarian and Vegan Dishes

I have gotten back into making some new recipes. .  I have made some new dishes since I posted recipes last, but I don't see the point in posting recipes I don't like.

These two recipes were really good

The first is Sweet Potato Cauliflower Soup from Allysonkramer.com.  It was very simple to make and vegan.  The recipe calls for garam masala to season.  I don't have that season mix so I used a dash or two of curry, cumin, cinnamon and nutmeg.  It was really good, but I didn't get super excited about leftovers the next day which tells me I didn't love it.  I enjoyed how it was thick and creamy without the aid of flour, milk, or butter.

One of these days I'll invest in some garam masala.

Mushroom and Lentil Pot Pies with Gouda Biscuit Topping 
This was delicious, and I can't wait till tomorrow to have the leftovers.  I did a whole butt load of things different from the recipe.
1. I could not find dried porcini mushrooms, so I doubled the fresh mushrooms.  (next time I'll use porcini, the added mushroom flavor will probably add a lot to the dish)
2. The water that the porcini mushrooms were boiled in was used later in the recipe, so I just used the equivalent amount of normal water. (again wish I had the porcini)
3. I didn't have gouda cheese.  I bought random cheese ends from the grocery store.  I have no idea what I used, most likely a mixture of munster, mozzarella, and some mild cheddar. (Next time I'll use gouda or a cheese that I know will brown and become crispy)
4. The recipe calls for one carrot, but I used two because mine are on the smaller side.  (glad I used two)
5. I don't have cute little individual pie dishes, so I instead used two normal sized pie dishes.  (perfect. I'll do it this way again.)
6. I substituted the buttermilk.  1 cup Buttermilk = 1 Tablespoon of vinegar + enough milk to make 1c.  I just cut this equation in half for the 1/2c of called for buttermilk (Yes, I will do this again as well)
7. I didn't have yukon gold potatoes, so I subsituted with two brown potatoes (maybe yukon would have been better, but I probably will continue to use whatever potatoes are on hand)
8. I didn't bother with a food processor to make the dough and instead just used my kitchen aid.  (Turned out fine).