Vegan Shepherd’s Pie
This traditional ground beef or lamb meal turned plant-based. A vegan Shepherd’s Pie that tastes so, so good - made with mushrooms and lentils, and topped with a creamy, light mashed potato. Baked until crisp for a perfect chilly night’s meal.
Skip to any part of the recipe by clicking on the link below:
Introduction
Before we Get Started
Ingredients
Method
Spruce it Up
Introduction
They said it couldn’t be done; that it wouldn’t taste good, or the texture would be….well, weird. That you’d need to go to a specialty vegan store and spend $14.99 on 300g of plant-based ground beef. Or that it wouldn’t hold its structure by itself, let alone under the weight of mashed potatoes. But they were wrong, and I’ll tell you why.
I’ve been working on my recipe for “ground beef” for a while now - I’ve tried it in a few recipes I’ve made (particularly my chili, but also in two more recipes to come). It took a lot of trial and error to figure out a final product that I was happy with. My goal when designing and making the recipes for my website is that they taste really, really good. I mean, properly good. Not “good for vegan food” or the well-intentioned but slightly Machiavellian self-assurance of “Yeah! This tastes so good. I’m really glad I’m eating this instead of the real thing”. Proper. Actually. Seriously. Genuinely….good.
Eating plant-based is great for the environment, for the animals, and for your physical health, but it takes effort (like any healthy habit) so it has to be sustainable. We have to want to do it. So, when I design recipes, I do it with sustainability in mind.
So when I cracked the code for good, plant-based ground beef, I knew I had to put it up to the test - a classic. One that my British family surely would not let me live down should it fall short. If it works in a Shepherd’s Pie, I thought, it can work anywhere. And, it does. Follow the easy recipe down below to figure out how it happens.
The secret to this recipe is to use good technique when cooking the potatoes, and to chop the mushrooms very finely. The work you do at the beginning of the recipe will shape your path for the remainder of it, and will, most importantly, have a large influence on how the dish comes out of the oven.
Check out the Spruce it Up section for ideas on how to take this recipe to the next level.
Before we Get Started
Prep Time: 20 Minutes
Cook Time: 1 Hour
Total Time: 1 Hour, 20 Minutes
Yield: 6-8 Servings
Ingredients
Ground Beef
1 Onion
3 cloves Garlic
2 carrots
2/3 cup Peas
1/3 cup Corn
227g White/Button Mushrooms
Or mushroom of your choosing
1.5 cups Split Red Lentils, uncooked
1.5 tsp Cumin
1 tbsp. Chili Powder
1.5 tbsp. Tomato Paste
1.5 tbsp. Soy Sauce
1 tbsp. Balsamic Vinegar
1 cup Vegetable Stock
Mashed Potatoes
3-4 Russet Potatoes
2 cups Unsweetened, Dairy-Free Milk
Method
Preheat your oven to 400°F.
Peel your potatoes, cut them in half and then into thirds, and add them to a medium/large pot. Fill the pot with cold water. Add a three-finger pinch of salt. Turn the heat to high and allow the water to come to a boil.
Using cold water ensures the potatoes are cooked from the inside-out, instead of from the outside-in. This means that you won’t end up with potatoes that are cooked on the outside but still raw in the middle.
Once the water reaches a boil, turn it down to medium to prevent it from boiling over.
While your water is coming to temperature, finely dice your onions, garlic, and mushrooms. Finely slice your carrots.
The more finely diced your mushrooms are at this point, the better the ground beef will be at the end.
In another pot, add 1.5 cups of uncooked split red lentils and a good pinch of salt, and follow the instructions on the package to cook them. Cook them about 2/3 of the way.
E.g. If they take 10 minutes to cook, only cook them for 6 minutes.
While your lentils or the water for the lentils is coming to temperature, place a pan over medium-high heat, with oil. Once the oil begins to shimmer, add your onions and carrots, and cook for approx. 2 mins. Then, add your garlic and a good pinch of salt. Cook the garlic and onion for a further minute, then add your mushrooms.
Add a big pinch of salt to the mushrooms, and cook them until all of the moisture they release disappears.
It’s absolutely necessary to salt them at this point, or else they won’t release their moisture.
If your lentils have reached the 2/3 mark by this point, drain and rinse them, and add them to the pan with the mushrooms, onion, and garlic.
If they need a little bit longer, take your mushroom pan off the heat and stir every 30 seconds or so to prevent the onions and garlic from burning.
Once your lentils are in the pan, stir to combine with the mushrooms, and add your soy sauce, tomato paste, balsamic vinegar, chili powder, and cumin. Mix thoroughly, and cook for approximately 2-3 minutes.
Check on your potatoes by taking a knife and pressing a potato against the wall of the pot. If the knife slides through the potato, you can drain them.
Leave them to sit at room temperature after you’ve drained them.
After the mushroom-lentil mix has been cooking for 2-3 minutes, add your vegetable stock, and allow it to come to a boil. Allow it to cook out almost all of the way, until the texture is similar to ground beef. Add your corn and peas, and mix them into your ground beef.
Add your cooked potatoes into a bowl with a 1/2 cup of dairy-free milk. Mash the potatoes, then add the remaining cup of dairy-free milk. Give it a good pinch of salt, mix together, and give it a taste. Add more seasoning as necessary.
Pour your ground beef mixture into an oven-safe dish. Top with your mashed potatoes, then put the dish into the oven for approx. 20-30 minutes.
Enjoy.
Spruce it Up
Add your favourite vegetables to the ground beef mix. These were the traditional ones, but it’s totally up to you what goes inside.
Pour a glass of red wine into the ground beef mixture and allow it to reduce for an added layer of flavour.
Chopped herbs go a long way, particularly parsley.
Add some spice with some red chili flakes.