Lola’s Kitchen: Vegetarian Shepherd’s Pie Recipe

Posted March 20, 2015 by Lola in Lola's Kitchen / 14 Comments

Lola's Kitchen graphic

Lola’s Kitchen is a feature on Lola’s Reviews where I talk about all things related to food, cooking and baking. These posts can be recipe posts or more discussion type posts about food. I love cooking and spend some time in the kitchen almost every day, so I wanted to give it a place on my blog as well. The banner for this feature is designed by Michelle from Limabean Design.

As soon as I came across the recipe of Vegetarian Shepherd’s Pie I knew I had to give it a try. And after making it once, I had to make it again two weeks later. I thought it would be nice to share the recipe with you.
This recipe is based on Minimalist Baker their 1 Hour Vegan Shepherd’s Pie recipe. I am a big fan of their blog, I recommend you stop by and take a look around.
Shepherd's pie on plate

Ingredients

Ingredients Shepherds pie

  • Potatoes – around 6
  • Red bell pepper – 1
  • Onion – 1
  • Lentils – 265 gram/ 1 1/2 cup
  • Carrots – around 6 small ones
  • Green Beans –
  • Frozen Green Peas – 1 cup
  • Corn – 140 gram/ 3/4 cup
  • Vegetarian minced meat (optional)
  • Water – 4 cups
  • Vegetable low salt Bouillon cubes – 2
  • Butter – 20 gram/ 3-4 tablespoons
  • Milk – 50 ml/ 1/2 cup
  • Garlic – 4-6 cloves
  • Thyme (fresh or dried) – 2 tablespoons
  • Cornstarch – 3 tablespoons
  • Salt (optional)
  • Pepper (optional)
  • Paprika Powder – 2 teaspoons
  • Olive Oil

The Paprika powder is the secret ingredient that gives this dish it’s deep brown color. This recipe feeds about 6 people and takes 1,5 hours to prepare if you have fresh veggies that you still have to slice and dice. I tried this recipe with and without vegetarian minced meat and I preferred it with, vegetarian meat always has this weird structure that absorbs a lot of fluid and the overall sauce structure was better with it, but I am not sure if they sell vegetarian meat everywhere, so it can be made without it as well.

Method

  1. Peel the potatoes and then dice them in small pieces. Then boil for 25 minutes.
  2. In the meantime slice and dice the veggies and the garlic.
  3. Put the onion and garlic in a pan and bake for a few minutes, until the onion is translucent.
  4. Then add the paprika, carrots and green beans. Followed by the Vegetable stock (water + bouillon cubes) and the thyme. Then cook for about 15 minutes.
  5. When the potatoes are done cooking, drain them and make the mashed potatoes. Add the milk and butter and mash them. Add some salt and pepper. Then add the lid to the pan and put aside.
  6. When the veggies have cooked for 15 minutes you can add the rest of the veggies, lentils, corn and green peas (and vegetarian minced meat if you use that). Then add the paprika powder and stir well. Let it cook for 5 minutes. Add some cornstarch mixed with some water to make the sauce thicker.
  7. Now it’s time to combine this all! Lightly grease an oven safe baking dish with butter. Make sure to use a large baking dish. First add the vegetable sauce, you might not want to add everything. I usually keep about one till two cups of sauce separate as else the mashed potatoes don’t fit. Add the mashed potatoes on top and use a spoon to make sure to top is a bit even. It’s not a problem if some sauce gets mixed with the mashed potatoes.
  8. Put in the oven on 200 degrees Celsius/ 380 Fahrenheit for 30 minutes and then eat!

Or if you want to save some time, just try and get the mashed potatoes and sauce ready at the same time and just serve together instead of putting it in the oven, that’s what usually do.

Pictures

Sliced and diced potatoes

Potatoes

Boiling the potatoes

cook the potatoes

Sliced and diced veggies

slice and diced veggies

Bake the onion

onion and garlic baking

Add the first batch of veggies

add veggies

Add broth and thyme

cooking sauce

Ready to Mash?

prepare to mash

Mashed potatoes

mashed potatoes

Sauce with all the veggies added

add rest of veggies

After adding the cornstarch

Shepherd's pie sauce

Grease the baking dish

grease the baking dish

Put the sauce in the baking dish

sauce in baking dish

Add the mashed potatoes on top

potatoes on top

Even the top

shepherd's pie before going in oven

How it looks after the oven

shepherd's pie

Variation Tips

  • Vegan Shepherd’s pie. Use vegan butter and no milk for the mashed potatoes. Or see Minimalist Baker their 1 Hour Vegan Shepherd’s Pie recipe recipe.
  • Meaty Shepherd’s pie. Add minced meat instead of vegetarian minced meat.

What’s your favorite dish from the oven?

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14 responses to “Lola’s Kitchen: Vegetarian Shepherd’s Pie Recipe

    • Oh that sounds so fancy in French! I don’t think we have a dutch equivalent of this dish and the first time I tried it was when I made it myself. It’s so good, I am going to make it again next week!

    • Everything is possible to change into a vegetarian version, that’s what I learned from years of beign a vegetarian, although it’s never exactly the same as with meat ofcourse. In most cases adding more veggies or vega meat works quite well and I’ve adapted quite some recipes form meat version to vega, although it’s a joy finding recipes that are already vegetarian and it’s one of the reasons I love cooking indian food as they hardly ever use meat.
      Lola recently posted…Lola’s Kitchen: Vegetarian Shepherd’s Pie RecipeMy Profile

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