At my house, we truly love this simple veggie shepherd’s pie. Made with a gravy full of onion, carrot, peas and mushrooms, its flavor is just right. Dried thyme and onion powder spice up the vegetable broth. Top it all off with garlicky mashed potatoes, give it a quick bake, and you are ready to serve! This recipe can be easily doubled to serve a crowd, but you also get eight single servings making just one pie.
Like many recipes, I recommend preparing all of the vegetables and having the herbs and seasonings on standby before starting the recipe. You’ll be able to assemble it all with no stress and you’ll be available for constant stirring!
I also recommend dropping the potatoes into cold water as you cut them into chunks before boiling. This keeps them bright and stops them from turning brown from oxidation. When it comes time to cook the potatoes, you can pour the soaking water into the pot along with the potatoes.
You can either use fresh cremini mushrooms (regular button mushrooms) or canned mushrooms in this recipe. I have included instructions for cooking each. If you’re like me, it will depend on what you have on hand. Either works and both taste delicious.
The potato layer also contains three tablespoons of nutritional yeast. I recommend leaving this in, if you aren’t familiar with nutritional yeast (also known as “nooch”). Not only does the nooch add a nice understated cheezy flavor, but it contains many amino acids, plus much needed B12. If you like the flavor of nutritional yeast, you can always add more to the potatoes, without affecting the texture. Don’t skip that nooch, y’all!
You will either broil or bake this simple veggie shepherd’s pie. All of the ingredients are cooked by the time it’s put into the oven, so the baking is for browning the top of the potatoes. I like using the low broil setting on my oven, just because I might space out and leave the pie in too long on regular broil. But, you can use either low broil, regular broil or bake at 350° F until the edges of your potatoes are a golden brown.
Decorating the top of the potatoes with swirls or patterns is fun. Experiment with a fork or any tool and see what you can do!
| Prep Time | 15 minutes |
| Cook Time | 30 minutes |
| Servings |
servings
|
- 3 pounds potatoes I prefer Yukon gold
- 2 tablespoons vegan butter
- 4 cloves garlic minced, or 2 teaspoons
- 1/2 cup plant-based milk I use unsweetened almond, but any type would do
- 2 to 3 tablespoons nutritional yeast
- salt to taste
- 1 tablespoon olive oil for sautéing, plus additional for drizzling
- 1 large carrot sliced or diced
- 1 large yellow onion diced
- 1 tablespoon dried thyme
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
- 2 cups vegetable broth or stock
- 1 cup peas frozen or canned
- 1 pound Cremini mushrooms sliced, or two 4-ounce cans sliced mushrooms, drained
Ingredients
For the potatoes:
For the saucy filling:
|
|
- Peel and cut the potatoes into chunks for boiling. Just cover with water in a large pot. Boil until tender when pierced with a fork, about 10 minutes.
- Drain potatoes and leave them in the colander.
- Add the vegan butter and garlic to the pot, with heat off, stirring for one minute to "cook" the garlic.
- Add the potatoes back into the pot. Add the plant based milk and nutritional yeast. Mash to desired consistancy; salt to taste.
- Preheat your oven to 350° F or to Low Broil, if available. A regular broil setting also works.
- Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large skillet.
- Add the sliced or diced carrot and sauté for 5 minutes. Add the diced onion and sauté 5 minutes more, until the onion is translucent and the carrot pieces are soft.
- Add the thyme, onion powder, and flour, stirring to coat the veggies with flour for 30 seconds to 1 minute.
- Pour the veggie broth into the skillet and stir until the sauce and flour form a smooth gravy.
- Bring to a simmer, then reduce the heat, constantly stirring until the gravy thickens, about 5 to 10 minutes.
- Stir in the peas (and canned or jarred mushrooms, if not using fresh mushrooms). Add salt to taste.
- If using fresh mushrooms, sauté them in a skillet, drizzled with olive oil, until soft and until the liquid rendered from the mushrooms has almost cooked away (is nearly evaporated). Then add the sautéed fresh mushrooms to the gravy.
- Spoon the mushroom vegetable gravy filling into a casserole dish.
- Spoon the potato layer onto the top and level it by spreading with a knife or the back of a mixing spoon. Drag the tines of a fork around on the top of the potatoes to make a pattern or design, if desired. This provides nice contoured edges for browning.
- Place under a Low Broil, or alternatively a regular Broil, for a few minutes to brown the potato top, keeping a constant eye on the pie while in the oven. Or bake the pie at 325° F for 25 minutes, until the potato tops are browning. Serve hot.
- Leftovers keep up to 7 days in the refrigerator.
I hope you enjoy this recipe! Leave any feedback in comments below. Also, share your comments on Instagram: @key_lime_coconut or on Twitter: @keylime_coconut. We love seeing hashtags #keylimecoconut and #keylimecoconutblog when you try our recipes.
Recent Comments