Vegan Shepherd's Pie

another comfort food classic.

Recipe adapted from https://minimalistbaker.com/1-hour-vegan-shepherds-pie/

PREP TIME: 15 minutes

COOK TIME: 45 minutes

TOTAL TIME: 1 hour

Serving: 6

Ingredients:

  • 1 medium onion (diced)

  • 2 cloved garlic (minced)

  • 1 celery (diced)

  • 1-2 carrots (diced)

  • 200g veggie minced (i used amidori veggie minced, https://www.amidori.com/en/products/amidori-veggie-minced-en)

  • 200ml vegetable stock

  • 2 tsp fresh thyme (or sub 1 tsp dried thyme per 2 tsp fresh)

  • 100g frozen peas or 250g bag frozen mixed veggies: peas, carrots, green beans, and corn (then omit the carrots and celery listed above)

  • 1360g yukon gold potatoes, partially peeled (thoroughly washed)

  • 42-56 g vegan butter, cream, or nut milk

  • Salt and pepper (to taste)

Instructions:

  1. Slice any large potatoes in half, place in a large pot and fill with water until they’re just covered. Bring to a low boil on medium high heat, then generously salt, cover and cook for 20-30 minutes or until they slide off a knife very easily.

  2. Once cooked, drain, add back to the pot to evaporate any remaining water, then transfer to a mixing bowl. Use a masher, pastry cutter or large fork to mash until smooth. Add add desired amount of vegan butter (2-4 Tbsp as original recipe is written, adjust if altering batch size), and season with salt and pepper to taste. Loosely cover and set aside.

  3. While potatoes are cooking, preheat oven to 425 degrees F (218 C) and lightly grease a 2-quart baking dish (or comparable sized dish, such as 9x13 pan.

  4. In a large saucepan over medium heat, sauté onions, garlic, celery, and carrots in 1 Tbsp olive oil until lightly browned and caramelized, about 5 minutes.

  5. Add a pinch of salt and pepper. Then add the veggie mince and thyme and stir. slowly add the stock so that there is some liquid still leftover in the pan.

  6. In the last 5 minutes of cooking, add the frozen veggies, stir, and cover to meld the flavors together.

  7. Taste and adjust seasonings as needed. Then transfer to your prepared oven-safe baking dish and carefully top with mashed potatoes. Smooth down with a spoon or fork and season with another crack of pepper and a little sea salt.

  8. Place on a baking sheet to catch overflow and bake for 10-15 minutes or until the mashers are lightly browned on top.

  9. Let cool briefly before serving. The longer it sits, the more it will thicken. Let cool completely before covering, and then store in the fridge for up to a few days. Reheats well in the microwave.

I actually have never made shepherd’s pie before, but i had it a couple of times when we were living in the UK. it is a pretty easy dish to make with a lot of basic kitchen ingredients. normally shepherd’s pie is made with ground meat but as we had been eating a bit of meat the other days we decided to try a vegetarian or vegan version. and i found this veggie mince at the supermarket so thought that could be a good SUBSTITUTE, the mince is mostly made up of peas so this dish was packed with protein.

this turned out pretty well, even the husband approved of the veggie minced. however the ratio between potato to filling was a bit unbalanced, next time i will make less of the potato topping and more of the filling. but other than that it was really delicious and quite healthy. this dish actually reminded me of the indonesian dish, pastel tutup, that i had growing up and upon doing a bit of research i found out that was an indonesian version of shepherd’s pie. both versions are good and different in their own way. but that reminds me that i should make some pastel tutup again.


cooking, veganJackie Wongshepard pie, potatoesComment