This warm and comforting vegan lentil shepherd’s pie is layered with a hearty and rich mushroom and lentil base topped with cauliflower mashed potatoes. It’s a healthy, filling meal for the whole family!
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Shepherd’s pie was first created in the 1800s. It was a recipe made to use up extra meat and vegetables. A traditional recipe includes lamb or mutton, with various vegetables, topped with a mashed potato crust.
This vegan version uses a lentil mixture instead of ground meat and is simmered with onions, garlic, mushrooms, carrots, and peas. It’s seasoned with various warm, comforting spices and has a mashed potato top that is a combination of cauliflower and russet potatoes that lightens this dish!
💗 Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Nutrient-Rich: Lentils are a great source of plant-based protein, fiber, and various essential nutrients, making this dish a healthy option.
High in Fiber: The lentils and vegetables in this dish provide dietary fiber, which helps you feel full and satisfied.
Healthy Comfort Food: The combination of lentils, veggies, and flavorful seasonings creates a rich, savory, and satisfying flavor.
Vegan Holiday Meal: This recipe is perfect for your vegan Thanksgiving or holiday celebrations.
Adaptable: Vegan shepherd’s pie can be customized with various vegetables, herbs, and spices to suit your taste.
Suitable for All: This shepherd’s pie is a dish that can be enjoyed by vegans, non-vegans, and those who are gluten-free, making it a great option for gatherings and family meals.
🥣 Ingredients and Notes
Mashed Potato Topping
These mashed potatoes are made with a combination of russet potatoes and cauliflower. The combination creates a light and fluffy potato topping. Soy milk, vegan, butter or olive oil, garlic, salt or soy sauce, and pepper create a creamy and rich flavor.
Lentil Filling
Green Lentils: There are many different types of lentils. I recommend using green lentils for this dish. Green lentils hold their shape when cooked and create a nice meaty texture.
Sliced Mushrooms: I recommend baby bellas or sliced white mushrooms. They provide more “meatiness” and flavor.
Spices and Seasoning: This recipe is seasoned with thyme, sage, oregano, smoked paprika, sea salt, and black pepper. I used dried seasoning. However, you can use fresh thyme and sage if you prefer. Just be sure to double the amount if you decide to use fresh.
📖Variations and Substitutions
- Add a kick to your shepherd’s pie recipe by incorporating spices like chili powder, paprika, cayenne pepper, or hot sauce to the lentil and vegetable mixture for a spicy twist.
- Infuse Indian flavors by seasoning the lentil filling with curry spices like turmeric, cumin, coriander, and garam masala. You can also use coconut milk in the mashed potato topping.
- Replace traditional mashed potatoes with a sweet potato topping. This adds a naturally sweet and colorful element to your shepherd’s pie.
👩🏻🍳 How to Make Vegan Lentil Shepherd’s Pie
Make the Mashed Potatoes
- Peel the russet potato and chop it into large chunks. Chop your head of cauliflower into florets, or use frozen cauliflower florets (that’s what I did!) Bring a pot of water to boil. Add the potatoes and cauliflower. Cook until potatoes are fork-tender for about 15 minutes.
- Drain the water from the potatoes and return to the pot. Add soy milk, vegan butter, garlic, salt, and pepper. Using your potato masher, mash the potatoes until fluffy. Set aside.
Make the Lentil Filling
- Prepare the lentils or use packed cooked lentils. Rinse the dried lentils to prepare them. Transfer to a medium-sized pot. Add two cups of water or vegetable broth for every 1 cup of lentils. When water comes to a boil, cover it, reduce to medium heat, and allow it to simmer for 15 minutes. Check that the lentils are cooked. Most of the water should be absorbed, and lentils should be firm yet soft to the bite.
- Add ¼ cup of vegetable stock to a large sauté pan on medium-high heat. Add diced onions and garlic. Sauté for 3-5 minutes or until onions become translucent.
- Add the sliced mushrooms and cook for an additional 3 minutes.
- Add the cooked lentils, the remaining vegetable stock (about ¾ cup), tomato paste, spices, salt, and pepper. Stir to combine. Allow it to simmer for about 5 minutes. Then, add the frozen peas and carrots. Mix and cook for 2 minutes or until peas and carrots have thawed.
Assemble the Lentil Shepherd’s Pie
- Preheat oven to 350 F. Pour the lentil filling into the bottom of a 9×13-inch casserole dish.
- Top the lentil filling with the mashed potatoes. Gently spread the potatoes over the top.
- Bake for 15 minutes. The filling will bubble, and the mashed potatoes will brown a bit. Top with fresh chopped herbs, and serve!
❓ FAQS
Yes! This recipe is gluten-free as written.
The difference between a cottage pie and a shepherd’s pie is in the type of meat that is added to the recipe. A cottage pie uses beef while a shepherd’s pie uses lamb. Since this recipe is vegan and has no meat at all, it could be called a vegan cottage pie or a vegan shepherd’s pie.
📝 Expert Tips
- To save time, use prepared lentils. You can buy these canned, or packaged near the tofu section of your grocery store.
- If you prefer not to use cauliflower in the mashed potatoes, use 3 russet potatoes instead.
- I prefer to use frozen peas and carrots, because it’s quicker than chopping carrots on my own, but feel free to use fresh carrots. You will need to add some cooking time to soften the carrots if you do so.
🍽 How to Serve
This is really a complete one-dish meal. You’ve got your protein, vegetables, and carbohydrates combined in one dish.
If you’d like to serve something along with this one-dish meal, I’d recommend a light vegan salad or a side of sautéd vegetables like these air fryer squash.
This dish would be excellent to make for a dinner party because it serves a lot of people!
It’s also a warm and comforting meal for a cozy night at home. Or if you’re looking for something to make in honor of St. Patrick’s Day, this is it!
🫙 How to Store and Keep
Refrigerate: Cover the leftover pie with plastic wrap or aluminum foil. You could also transfer the dish to an airtight container. The challenge is when you transfer the shepherd’s pie to another container, the potato topping and the lentil filling will get mixed together. I prefer the nice division of the two toppings. It will keep for about 3-4 days in the refrigerator.
Freeze: Use a freezer-safe aluminum baking dish. Cover and keep out any air so you don’t get a freezer burn. Add a layer of saran wrap or aluminum foil over the top, then cover with the baking lid. Store in the freezer for 2-3 months.
Reheat: When ready to reheat, place in a preheated oven at 350 F. Bake for 45 minutes or until the dish is warm and bubbly.
😋 More vegan Irish dishes!
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⚖️ Serving Size
This recipe makes eight servings.
Recipe
Vegan Lentil Shepherd’s Pie
Ingredients
Mashed Potatoes
- 1 russet potato peeled and cut into cubes
- 4 cups cauliflower about 1 head cut into florets
- ¼ cup unsweetened soy milk
- 1 tablespoon vegan butter
- 2 teaspoon minced garlic
Filling
- 1 onion diced
- 2 teaspoon minced garlic
- 12 oz sliced mushrooms
- 2 cups cooked green lentils
- 1 ½ cups peas and carrots frozen
- 1 cup vegetable stock
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- ½ tsp ground sage
- ½ teaspoon oregano
- 1 teaspoon thyme
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
Instructions
Mashed Potato Topping:
- Peel the russet potato and chop into large chunks. Chop your head of cauliflower into florets, or use frozen cauliflower florets (that's what I did!) Bring a pot of water to boil. Add the potatoes and cauliflower. Cook until potatoes are fork tender about 15 minutes.
- Drain the water from the potatoes, and return to pot. Add soy milk, vegan butter, garlic, salt, and pepper. Using your potato masher, mash the potatoes until the fluffy. Set aside.
Lentil Filling:
- Prepare the lentils, or use packed cooked lentils. To prepare dried lentils, rinse the lentils. Transfer to a medium size pot. Add two cups of water for every 1 cup of lentils. When water comes to a boil, cover, reduce the heat to a simmer, and allow to cook for 15 minutes. Check that lentils are cooked. Most of the water should be absorbed and lentils should be firm, yet soft to the bite.
- Add ¼ cup of vegetable stock to a large pot on medium-high heat. Add diced onions and garlic. Sauté for 3-5 minutes of until onions become translucent.
- Add sliced mushrooms, and cook for an additional 3 minutes.
- Add the cooked lentils, the rest of the vegetable stock (about ¾ cup), tomato paste, spices, salt, and pepper. Stir to combine. Allow to simmer for about 5 minutes. Then add the frozen peas and carrots. Stir to combine and cook for another 2 minutes, or until peas and carrots have thawed.
Assemble and Bake
- Preheat oven to 350 F. Pour the lentil filling into the bottom of a 9×13 inch baking dish.
- Top the lentil filling with the mashed potatoes. Gently spread the potatoes over the top.
- Bake for 15 minutes. Filling will bubble and mashed potatoes will brown a bit. Top with fresh chopped herbs, and serve!
Notes
- To save time, use prepared lentils. You can buy these canned, or packaged near the tofu section of your grocery store.
- If you prefer not to use cauliflower in the mashed potatoes, use 3 russet potatoes instead.
- I prefer to use frozen peas and carrots because it’s quicker than chopping carrots on my own but feel free to use fresh carrots. You will need to add some cooking time to soften the carrots if you do so.
- It will keep in the refrigerator for 3-4 days.
- You can also freeze this dish. Transfer to an airtight freezer-safe container. It will keep for 2-3 months in the freezer. When ready to reheat. Warm in the oven for about 45 minutes at 350 F, or until lentils become warm and bubbly.
Nicole
How much peas and carrots do you add? I don’t see it in the ingredients list.
Alison Corey
You need 1 1/2 cups of peas and carrots.
Jessie
This is comfort food at its finest!! I loved this it was so good.
Suzy
We’ve had traditional shepherd’s pie so it was different trying this but wow. It was so good! Loved it!
Chichi
This recipe looks so delicious. Can’t wait to give it a try! Yum
Cathleen
Okay, this is amazing! AND I have all of the ingredients at home!! Bookmarked to make this weekend, thank you so much for the recipe 🙂