Leftover mashed potatoes don’t taste so great. But wait, don’t toss them! Instead use those spuds to make a delicious Shepherd’s pie.
This “pie” is a classic English dish. Traditional recipes call for ground beef or other meat, but this vegan Shepherd’s pie is very hearty and stuffed with vegetables. Lentils and mushrooms add a meat-like texture, while root vegetables fill your belly.
Make sure that your mashed potatoes are prepared with olive oil instead of butter so you can get the full vegan experience.
Vegan Shepherd's Pie
Lentils and mushrooms sub for ground beef in this classic English dish. It is stuffed full of veggies and topped with creamy mashed potatoes. Delicious!
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup dry lentils
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 yellow onion diced
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 3 carrots sliced
- 1 celeriac root peeled and diced
- 8 ounces button mushrooms diced
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp dried thyme
- 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
- freshly ground pepper to taste
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 tbsp flour
- 1 cup vegetable broth
- 4 cups mashed potatoes made with olive oil
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F
- Bring a pot of water to boil and add the dry lentils. Cook for about 20 minutes until soft, but not mushy.
- Meanwhile, mince the garlic, dice the onion, carrots, celeriac, and mushrooms.
- Heat olive oil in a large oven-proof skillet over medium heat until it shimmers then sauté the onion until translucent, about 5 minutes.
- Add the carrots, celeriac, and garlic and continue to cook another 5 minutes.
- Add the mushrooms, salt, thyme, paprika, and pepper and cook another 5 minutes.
- Add the tomato paste and flour and stir for 1 minute until the vegetables are coated.
- Add the vegetable broth and use a wooden spoon to scrape the brown bits of flour and tomato paste from the bottom of the skillet. Bring to a simmer and then stir in the cooked lentils.
- Evenly distribute the mashed potatoes over the top of the vegetables and use the back of a spoon to spread it out until the potatoes entirely cover the rest of the mixture.
- Bake the Shepherd's pie for 15 minutes until hot then turn on the broiler and cook another 1-2 minutes until the potatoes are nice and browned on top.
Notes
-Perfect recipe for leftover mashed potatoes after a holiday meal
-I kept the flour in the recipe, but you could also use leftover gravy instead of broth and then flour isn't necessary. Or if you don't mind it a little runnier, use less broth but omit the flour altogether.
-You can be very flexible with vegetables in this recipe. Although peas are traditional in Shepherd's pie, I usually don't use them because I don't like the plastic bag that the frozen ones come in and the canned are too salty. Regular celery isn't available in my area most of the year so I use celeriac root, which is in season in fall/winter. It has a very similar flavor.
