Homemade Vegan Shepherd’s Pie Recipes
One of England’s most traditional dishes is shepherd’s pie (made with beef) or cottage pie (made with lamb). Originally created as a way to use up leftovers, today there are many issues. As in a country of 60 million people, we simply don’t have enough land for everyone to eat free-range.
So if you disagree with factory farms (and you likely do), we all need to eat less meat. Something chefs like Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall say (he says if you’re not vegan, then at least eat less meat throughout the week).
So here are a few of the best plant-based alternatives around the Interwebs. Some are made with lentils (for purists). A few others are made with ‘vegan beef mince’, to taste exactly the same (they have no cholesterol, so you can eat more of them!)
Read up on food safety for people and pets (onion, garlic and spices are unsafe near animal friends). Bin allium scraps (onion, garlic, leeks, shallots, chives) as acids may harm compost creatures (same with tomato/citrus/rhubarb scraps).
For your mashed potato topping, use Flora vegan butter (free from palm oil).
Thee Burger Dude is a popular American chef, who mostly focuses on creating vegan alternatives to fast food like cheeseburgers and Big Mac. But here he offers his take on the English shepherd’s pie.
America’s Test Kitchen is a bit like the UK’s Good Housekeeping, in that all the recipes are created by professional chefs, then triple-tested to make sure they work and taste good. The ingredient ‘protein crumbles’, basically means vegan mince!
Vegan Cottage Pie (Emily Leary) can be made with Moving Mountains or Meatless Farm mince, both of which are easily found in supermarkets (recycle packaging at supermarket bag bins, if your kerbside does not recycle).
School Night Vegan offers another version, serve with braised green beans and vegan gravy. This is a tasty concoction including yeast extract and vegan Worcestershire, topped with an oat-milk mashed potato topping.
Get to Know Lovely Lentils!
It’s a shame that lentils don’t receive the love they deserve in England. In Italy, everyone eats them, whether they are vegan/vegetarian or not. Native to the Middle East, lentils are cheap, tasty, nutritious and filling. Throw them into your pasta sauce for a protein-rich dinner. Blend them in soups and stews, or add to fresh salads, for a filling lunch.
This lentil shepherd’s pie (Running on Real Food) subs the meat with lentils – more healthy and animal-kind!) You’ll never miss the meat with this hearty mushroom lentil filling, topped with creamy mashed spuds. It’s ready in 1 hour, and leftovers keep in the fridge (in a covered container) for a short time.
There are three main types of lentils:
- Red lentils are the easiest to cook, but tend to be less likely found in tins. So if buying from stores in plastic bags, you can recycle the packaging at supermarket bag bins, if your kerbside does not recycle. They take around 20 minutes to cook in water. They go quite mushy, and are nice in all recipes.
- Green and brown lentils are more ‘earthy’ in flavour. These take longer to cook, but are the best choice to replace meat in dishes like vegan shepherd or cottage pie, and hold up better if making lentil burgers.
- Black lentils are not so easy to find, but again are more dense in flavour.
