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Shepherd's pie

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The shepherd's pie is one of the few English recipes I've learnt. The traditional one is obviously with meat, and this is the plant-based version. Despite it being an English recipe originally, this alternative version is taken from an Italian cook. I've read a few online before choosing this one, but I feel that the British vegan adaptations of traditional recipes are often full of random spices that don't make sense and ruin the flavour. This recipe is much simpler in terms of ingredients/spices and it's delicious!

Ingredients (2 people)#

  • Potatoes: 400 gr
  • Oat milk: 100-150 gr
  • Tomato passata: 350 gr
  • Olive oil: 4 tbsp
  • Ground turmeric: 0.5 tsp
  • Nutritional yeast: 1 tbsp
  • Nutmeg: a very small pinch
  • Green lentils (uncooked): 100 gr
  • Onion: 1 small
  • Carrot: 1 medium
  • Celery: 0.5 stak
  • Salt to taste
  • Vegetable broth: as needed

Method#

  1. Peel the potatoes and put them in hot water to cook. Then focus on the lentils whilst they cook
  2. Prepare a pan with a couple of tbsp of olive oil. Chop the onion, carrot and celery and add them to the pan
  3. Cook for 5-8 minutes until the vegetables are tender
  4. Add the lentils, the tomato passata and a bit of vegetable broth - not too much, you'll add more as needed
  5. Cook for 30 minutes, adding more broth if needed. The broth needs to cook the lentils, but you are not making a soup here, so be mindful and just add small bits at a time. It needs to become like a ragù
  6. Once the time has passed, taste and see if the lentils are cooked, and cook for a little longer if needed. When they are ready, add salt to taste
  7. The potatoes should be ready by now, so drain the water and add them to a bowl. Blend them with an immersion blender
  8. Then add 4 tbsp of olive oil, the oat milk, turmeric, nutmeg, nutritional yeast and a pinch of salt. Use the same immersion blender and blend everything together to make a purée
  9. Once that's ready, get a casserole and put the lentils mixture as the base, and the potatoes purée on top. To put the purée, I suggest using an icing bad (aka, "sac à poche"), because otherwise it will mess up with the lentils while you're trying to spread it on top
  10. Cook in the oven with fan on for 30-35 minutes, until the potatoes purée on top gets a bit golden
  11. Take it out the over and let it settle for about 10 minutes. Then serve hot.

Tips#

This is another of those recipe that, if you want to make more than the portions you need, it's a good idea, and you'll have your lunch for the day after. It's still very good when re-heated - arguably even better! A lovely wintery comfort food, I love it!