This potato topped pie is the perfect vegetarian alternative to a Shepherd’s Pie. It’s also Vegan if you replace the Worcestershire sauce with mushroom ketchup. Hearty and satisfying and great with a little gravy and a large dollop of greens.
It’s a little involved but worth the effort and time – a great batch cook dish for a weekend. You can use any root veg: squash, turnips, carrots, and parsnips. I threw in some fresh parsley that I had leftover at the end too. The dish freezes well and can be kept in the fridge for 5 days. Defrost before reheating.
Ingredients
- For the vegetable filling:
- Olive Oil
- 2 Cloves Garlic – Crushed
- One large white onion – finely chopped
- 2-3 Parsnips – diced
- 2-3 large carrots – diced
- 1 400ml tin of green lentils - drained
- 200g chestnut mushrooms – cleaned and quartered
- 20g Dried porcini mushrooms, crushed and soaked in 200ml hot water
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 Tbsp tom puree
- 1 Dry vegetable stock cube
- 1 Tsp white miso paste - optional
- 1 Tsp dried herbs
- 1 Heaped Tsp wholegrain mustard
- A few good shakes of Worcestershire Sauce (omit for vegan version)
- Salt and pepper
- For the mashed potato topping:
- 6 White potatoes – peeled and halved
- 100ml Olive oil – or a knob of butter if you prefer
- A pinch of nutmeg
- A splash of almond or oat milk
- 250ml veg stock
- 1Tsp cornflour
Instructions
Pop your potatoes on to boil for 15 minutes until tender.
In a good size pan, fry off the chopped onions and garlic in a little olive oil over a medium heat with seasoning. Then add the parsnip and carrot to the pan and sweat for 5 minutes. Add the lentils, dried herbs, chopped mushrooms, bay leaves, and crumble in the dry stock cube, season well, stir and continue to cook for another 5 minutes.
While it’s cooking, drain your potatoes, add the olive oil, seasoning, nutmeg and milk and mash until smooth, cover and set aside. Make up the 250ml of stock and add the tomato puree, miso, wholegrain mustard and Worcester sauce. Make up a teaspoon of cornflour with a little hot water and add that to the liquid too, stirring it all together well.
Add the porcini mushroom and the soaking liquor to the pan, stir well and cook for 5 minutes, before finally pouring over the stock mix. Stir everything together well, season a little more, and cook on a low to medium heat for another 10 minutes or so, cover with foil if needed.
Once cooked, pop the filling on the bottom of oven proof dish and top with the mash. Wrap for freezing, or set aside to re-heat. The pie will reheat on a 170c or 160 fan in about 20-30 minutes.
