November 18, 2018 Adaptable Recipes

Vegan Shepherds Pie

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A delicious recipe for Vegan Shepherds Pie with mushrooms and root vegetables topped with pillowy mashed potatoes. A vegan main dish that is perfect for Thanksgiving, Christmas or the holiday table!

The BEST Vegan Shepherds Pie with mushrooms and root vegetables- topped with truffled mashed potatoes. A delicious vegan main dish -perfect for the holidays! #vegan #shepherdspie #shepherdspievegan #veganmain #veganthanksgiving #Shepherdspierecipe #healthy #veganmain #veganchristmas

This healthy delicious recipe for Vegan Shepherds Pie involves no shepherds or sheep! The rich and flavorful vegan stew is made with savory mushrooms and root vegetables. It’s rich and deep enough for a full-bodied glass of red wine, and, depending on how you make it, can be rustic, or refined. It can also be adapted to include lamb if you have meat eaters in the house or want to make some vegan and some with lamb for a holiday gathering. Very adaptable!

Or, for a more formal dinner like Thanksgiving, or Christmas, try elevating the vegan shepherds pie, by serving individual baking dishes, adding a little truffle oil to the mashed potatoes like we do in our catering business. THE BEST!

The nice thing is, if you are having guests over, you can fully customize these, making some vegan, and if you prefer, some with lamb because you can bake them in individual baking dishes. It is perfect for the holidays. And it’s also perfect after the holidays, using up leftover mashed potatoes, yams, stray vegetables, turkey or roast or whatever you have in your fridge. The beauty of Shepherds Pie, is its ability to transform leftover ingredients into something new. Think of it as “re-purposed”. You get the idea. That said, here is my vegan version…but feel free to play around and add your own touches.

Here is how to make easy, vegan, truffled mashed potatoes for the top. These are also great on their own as a side dish.

Peel and dice 4 lbs russet potatoes, ( or to save time, use yukon gold potatoes and don’t peel them!) cutting them into 1-2 inch cubes of similar size. Place them in a pot and cover with at least an inch of water. Add salt. Bring to a boil, and continue to boil until very tender, about 20 minutes.

When tender, cover and turn off heat until ready to mash.

While the potatoes are simmering prepare the stew!

Peel and chop carrots, onions, parsnips and celery.

Slice the mushrooms.

You will need 6 Cups of sliced mushrooms. These are cremini mushrooms , but often I’ll use a mix of different kinds. If mushrooms are dirty, instead of washing them try brushing them off with a rough towel first, in order to keep them dry.

I love including Jerusalem artichokes, also known as sun chokes in this recipe. But this is not imperative. Use them if you can find them, or sub other veggies. They look similar to fresh ginger, but are actually the root of the perennial sunflower, in season for a short period of time in the fall. They have the most amazing flavor, nutty and earthy and a hint of sweet, and to me taste similar to artichoke hearts.

They don’t need to be peeled if you soak them in water for a few minutes and thoroughly scrub them.

Dice them into 1/2 pieces, along with carrots and parsnips. For this recipe, I prepped 3 cups sun chokes, and 5 cups combination of celery, carrots and parsnips. So a total of 8 cups of veggies, chopped. You can sub more carrots, parsnips and celery for the sun chokes- or try other root veggies like celery root, or rutabaga.

Plus the 6 cups mushrooms. Now this may seem like a lot of vegetables, but remember the stew will cook down. You will end up with about 8 -9 cups, by the end of cooking, enough for 8 servings.

Place the onion, celery, parsnip and carrots in a heavy bottomed pot with olive oil.

The key is to be patient, going through all the steps, the stew will take 30-40 minutes. The stove is doing the most of work here, it’s pretty easy, so try not to rush.

In the end, you will have a rich deep flavorful stew. You could make the stew part ahead ( store it in the fridge) and then heat it up before filling the baking dishes.

I prefer the mashed potatoes made fresh, the day of, that way they are creamier and easier to work with.

Fill your 9 x13 inch baking dish, large dutch oven, or individual ramekins, or large cast iron skillet, or whatever oven proof dish you want to serve this in, and cover with the truffled mashed potatoes, either spooning it on or piping it on.

Vegan Shepherds Pie with mushrooms and root vegetables topped with pillowy truffled mashed potatoes. Perfect for the holidays!

Place on a sheet pan and put in a 375 F oven.

Take them out when they are bubbly and golden, about 20-25 minutes.

If serving this as a side dish, instead of a main course, you could try something like this.

Hope you enjoy this tasty recipe for Vegan Shepherds Pie with mushrooms and root vegetables- topped with pillowy truffled mashed potatoes. A cozy vegan main dish perfect for the holidays!

For another vegan main dish that is perfect for the holidays- be sure to take a look at this Mushroom Wellington!