Whether you celebrate St. Patrick’s Day or just need a very filling, delicious dinner idea, then this vegan shepherd’s pie is going to be your new favorite recipe!
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A comfort food classic, this delicious vegan shepherd’s pie recipe will become a family favorite. Many times families will enjoy this dairy free shepherd’s pie around St. Patrick’s Day as it’s a classic Irish dish, however, there’s no reason that you couldn’t make this any day of the week year round.
Especially on nights that it’s colder and you really want a filling and warm dinner idea, this hearty and savory dish is everything you’ve been wanting. Sometimes this recipe is also called a vegan cottage pie depending on where you are from.
This happens to be a completely vegan, thus also a vegetarian shepherd’s pie recipe, but beyond that this shepherd’s pie recipe is also dairy and egg free, as well as gluten free.
Why is it called shepherd’s pie?
Shepherd’s pie was a spin off of the 18th century cottage pie. Cottage pie received it name from people who lived in cottages and made a meat filling with mashed potatoes.
During this time any kind of meat could be used, but traditionally now, there’s a distinction between cottage pie being made with beef and shepherd’s pie being made with lamb.
The distinction came from shepherd’s looking after sheep that was used. Even though that’s what experts would tell you, many people still use any type of meat and have a tendency to call it shepherd’s pie.
In this vegan shepherd’s pie recipe, we use lentils and chickpeas to make up the mock-meat filling so it’s still hearty, savory and filling without using any animal products at all.
What ingredients do you need to make Vegan Shepherd’s Pie?
- olive oil (or oil of choice)
- chickpeas
- spaghetti sauce
- tomato paste
- lentils
- garlic
- onions
- celery
- carrots
- corn
- peas
- Russet Potatoes
- nutritional yeast
- vegetable stock
- Salt and pepper
- vegan butter
- unsweetened almond milk (*See notes about allergies below)
What other ways could I use the “vegan meat sauce”?
You could totally just make the vegan meat sauce part of this vegan shepherd’s pie recipe and use it in a number of ways. Feel free to get creative and let us know how you prefer to make it. Some of the other ways we have used just the vegetarian meat sauce part of this recipe are:
- As a spaghetti meat sauce – we recommend adding another ½-1 full cup of spaghetti or marinara sauce to the recipe and then mixing in or serving on top of your favorite pasta
- To make quesadillas – this recipe was delicious inside of a tortilla with a little bit of Daiya cutting board blend mozzarella dairy free cheese and then charred to perfection to make a quesadilla.
- On top of pizza with your favorite vegetables on top
- Add to make your favorite stuffed shells recipes
- Pour over some roasted smashed potatoes
We know that there are literally dozens of ways to use this vegan meat sauce and hope that these ideas give you a few more delicious dinner ideas.
Is this Vegan Shepherd’s Pie recipe Top 8 Allergy friendly?
This dairy free shepherd’s pie recipe is vegan allergy friendly. As written, the only thing that would be a Top 8 Allergy would be the unsweetened almond milk that we use to make the mashed potatoes. However, that can easily be swapped out for any other safe unsweetened dairy free milk option that your family prefers. If you make that one simple swap, this vegetarian Shepherd’s Pie recipe is Top 8 Allergy friendly.
What other Vegan Meals Should I Try?
🥳 Get the Full Recipe
Vegan Shepherd’s Pie
Ingredients
For the Dairy Free Mashed Potatoes
- 2.5 pounds Russet Potatoes, peeled and cubed
- 4 cups vegetable broth
- ½ cup vegan butter
- ¼ cup unsweetened dairy free milk
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
For the Vegan Meat Sauce
- 1 tablespoon olive oil (or oil of choice)
- 7 cloves garlic
- 1 sweet onion
- 2 stalks celery
- 1 large carrot
- 1 cup brown lentils, cooked
- 1 can tomato paste
- 1 jar spaghetti or marinara sauce (we prefer a garlic/basil flavored sauce)
- 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
- 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
- ½ cup vegetable stock
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
- 1 can chickpeas, drained
- ½ cup corn
- ½ cup peas
For Vegan Gravy, Optional
- reserved cooking broth from mashed potatoes
- ¼ cup vegan butter
- 3 tablespoons flour (sub for GF if needed)
- ¼ teaspoon salt (more to taste)
- ⅛ teaspoon pepper (more to taste)
Instructions
For the Lentils
- If making from dried, start cooking according to the package instructions.
For the mashed potatoes
- Add vegetable stock and potatoes to pot. Turn on medium heat and bring to a boil. Continue to cook for 10-15 minutes or until fork tender.
- Using a slotted spoon, remove the potatoes to a large bowl, reserving the cooking liquid to make gravy.
- To the bowl, add in the butter, milk, salt and pepper. Using a potato masher, mash the potatoes. *Taste the potatoes and add more salt and pepper as needed. If needed more creamy, add a tablespoon of milk at a time up to ¼ cup more. Set aside.
For the Vegan Shepherd’s Pie Recipe
- While you are waiting for potatoes to be fork tender, begin prepping vegan meat sauce. Add the garlic, onions, celery and carrots to a food processor and pulse until finely chopped. You can also do this by hand if needed.
- Add oil to a large skillet and heat over medium. (*See directions in post about using cast iron for this to make easier) Add chopped vegetable mixture and stir around, cooking for about 3-4 minutes. Drop your heat to medium low.
- Add in lentils, tomato paste, spaghetti sauce, Italian seasoning, vegetable stock, and salt and pepper. Cook for 15 minutes. Stir occasionally.
- Preheat oven to 425˚F.
- Add in chickpeas, nutritional yeast, corn and peas. Cook for another 5 minutes. If you need to you can add a splash more vegetable stock. Taste and add more salt and pepper to taste. Remove from heat.
- If you are using a cast iron skillet, at this point spread your mashed potatoes on top. If you are not, spread the vegan meat mixture on the bottom of an oven safe casserole dish. Then add the dairy free mashed potatoes to the top.
- Bake in oven for 25 minutes or until the top has started to become golden brown in places. Remove from heat and let sit for 15 minutes.
For Vegan Gravy, Optional
- With your reserved stock, you should have two cups liquid remaining. If not fill with more vegetable stock to get 2 cups.
- In the same pot, add the butter over medium heat and let melt. Add in the flour. Whisk constantly until a paste forms. Add stock back in very slowly. Continuously whisking until well combined. Then, add salt and pepper.
- Taste your gravy and add more salt and pepper if needed. Let cook, stirring often, until gravy begins to thicken. Remove from heat and keep warm. Pour gravy over the entire thing, or (our preference), plate the shepherd's pie and add desired amount of gravy to each plate.
Notes
Nutrition
Did you make and love this recipe?
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This post was originally published on 3/15/2019 and updated on 3/9/2022.
I’m excited to make this for Xmas this year! What kind of lentils do I use? Red, brown, green, yellow….?
Thanks!
Sorry for that confusion. We used brown. Green will also work. Red would technically work but they will break down a lot and wouldn’t have that firm texture in the final dish (some people don’t care about this)
This was pretty good. My daughter’s feedback was that there needs to be more filling, but that is easily rectified. Everyone enjoyed this. Except the cook, who is still wondering where y’all got 7 minute prep time from (it was closer to an hour including the cook time for the potatoes) and how do 7 (supposed prep time) + 50 (cook time) + 15 (rest time) = 57. Otherwise, it’s a recipe I’d recommend to friends.
Hi Lee. Glad you loved the recipe. Thanks for your feedback. Prep time is only prepping the ingredients – so in this recipe it would be peeling and cubing potatoes and putting the garlic, onions, celery and carrots in the food processor and processing. Otherwise it’s cook time where the potatoes and filling are cooking at the same time. Everyone is different in their prep time. I’ve adjusted this to 15 minutes.
This was absolutely delicious, and cooking the potatoes in vegetable broth is a new family must!
Awww thank you! We appreciate you giving the recipe a try and we’re happy to hear that you enjoyed it!
This recipe is absolutely delicious. My family was blown away! Worth the time to make- it will be a favorite meal from here on.
Love when the whole family enjoys
Tasty!!! It doesn’t say when to put the gravy so I just dumped it on top (sorry haven’t made shepherds pie). Great recipe though. Very flavorful
Thanks for your feedback, we updated the recipe to clarify. What would you change/do different to give it 5 stars?
I made this recipe for my Christmas dinner this year. It is absolutely delicious! So much flavor and filling. I love it and will definitely make it again. In fact, I’ll probably make it for our upcoming pot luck New Year’s Eve night at my church. I can always count on your recipes to have good flavor. Thank you! Happy New Year!
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