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.
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.
Take them out when they are bubbly and golden, about 20-25 minutes.
Vegan Shepherds Pie
The BEST Vegan Shepherds Pie with mushrooms and root vegetables- topped with truffled mashed potatoes. A delicious vegan main dish -perfect for the holidays! Updated 12/1/2018
- Prep Time: 45 mins
- Cook Time: 60 mins
- Total Time: 1 hour 50 mins
- Yield: 8 1x
- Category: Main, vegan, entree
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: English
Ingredients
- 2–3 T Olive oil
- 1 large onion, diced
- 2 Cups parsnips, peeled and diced
- 2 Cups carrots, peeled, diced
- 2 cups celery, chopped
- 1 pound sun chokes ( or sub 3 more cups – chopped carrots, celery and parsnips ) – scrubbed and diced
- 4–6 cloves garlic- rough chopped
- 1 1/2 lbs sliced Mushrooms ( cremini, button, shiitake, portobello, chanterelles or a mix)
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 tsp cracked pepper
- 2 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves
- 1 cup red wine
- 2 tablespoons flour ( or use GF flour)
- 3 Cups rich veggie stock
- 1 Tablespoon miso paste ( optional) or sub 2 teaspoons soy sauce.
- 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
- 1 cup fresh Italian Parsley, chopped
Mashed Potato Topping:
- 4 pounds yukon gold potatoes, unpeeled ( or russets, peeled) , diced into 1 inch cubes
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 tablespoon truffle oil ( optional but amazing. )
- 2 teaspoons roasted garlic powder (optional)
- pinch white pepper ( optional)
Instructions
- Start the mashed potatoes. Dice 4 lbs of yukon gold potatoes, into 1-2 inch pieces. Make sure the pieces are similar in size. Place in a large pot, cover with an inch of water with 2 tsp kosher salt and boil until very tender about 20 minutes. Once tender, turn heat off and cover.
- At the same time, make the stew: In a very large heavy bottom pot, heat oil on med heat. Saute onions, parsnips, carrots, celery, optional sun chokes and 1/2 tsp salt for about 15 mins, stirring occasionally until onions are golden and carrots are tender. Add mushrooms, garlic, herbs and 1 tsp salt and continue to sauté on medium heat, stirring frequently, until mushrooms begin to give off their liquid, about another 8 -10 mins. Add 1 cup red wine. Stir occasionally, and let wine reduce until its almost gone, about another 8 minutes.
- While wine is reducing, in a small separate pot, heat 3 Cups vegetable stock and add 1 T miso paste, stirring until its dissolved.
- When wine is mostly reduced, sprinkle the stew with 2 Tablespoons flour ( or use GF flour) and stir it for about 2 minutes letting the flour cook a bit.
- Add hot veggie broth mixture to the pot, stirring until the stew thickens, about 3 minutes. Add the vinegar. Taste for salt, and adjust, and add more cracked pepper if you like. Turn off heat, and cover. (At this point you could divide your stew mixture -if you want to add lamb of beef to part of it. For example, I like my shepherds pie, without meat. My husband likes his with meat, so I divide it, adding cooked lamb to his portion. When having guests over, you could do half and half if you like.)
- Drain the cooked potatoes ( saving the hot water), and put them back into the pot. Mash with potato masher and add 3 T olive oil and 1 T truffle oil . Add a little of the hot potato water to loosen them up to a creamy consistency. Whip them up with that masher! Season with salt and pepper. ( For the non vegan version, a big dollop of sour cream is delicious here).
- Stir the fresh parsley into the stew, and scoop it into a greased, large 9×13 inch baking dish, or a large oven proof cast iron skillet or dutch oven, or smaller individual-sized baking dishes, or ramekins. For a little extra luxury drizzle the top of the stew with a few drops of truffle oil.
- Spoon the creamy mashed potatoes over the stew, or use a piping bag and pipe out the potatoes over the stew. If potatoes seem too dry to pipe, whip in a little more hot potato water to them and they will loosen up nicely.
- Place baking dish or individual pies, on a sheet-pan to catch the drippings, in a preheated 375F oven and bake until bubbly and golden, about 20-30 minutes. Serve with a sprig of thyme and a good red wine.
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This dish was so amazing. We’re still obsessing over it a day later. My boyfriend actually said it was the best think I made all year. Wow. Can’t wait to make it again. Thanks for sharing it!
★★★★★
Wow! Great to hear!