If you want a hearty and delicious main course for dinner, make this Vegan Shepherd’s Pie. Forget the turkey on Thanksgiving and make this instead… your guests will be asking for the recipe on repeat! If you need more holiday dishes, try my One Pot Pumpkin Orzo, Holiday Tortellini Salad, Creamy Pumpkin Pasta, or Cheesy Cauliflower Potato Casserole.
Why I Love This Recipe
- Comforting: What’s more comforting than a hearty casserole filled with mashed potatoes and cooked veggies?
- Plant-Based: Most holiday dishes are filled with butter, cream, and animal products that leave you feeling bloated and yucky. This plant-based dish will have you and your guests feeling amazing!
- Holiday Friendly: Perfect dish to bring to your family holiday parties or Thanksgiving gatherings. Everyone will ask for the recipe!!
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Notes on Ingredients
- Lentils: Use pre-cooked or canned lentils, or cook dry lentils beforehand.
- Red wine: Optional, but a dash of red wine adds depth of flavor.
- Potatoes: I use yukon gold potatoes and peel them well.
- Nutritional yeast: Find nutritional yeast in the spices/seasoning or baking aisle of your grocery store. It adds a delicious cheesy flavor.
- Almond milk: Use unsweetened and plain almond milk.
Please take note that this is important information about the ingredients used in this recipe and the FULL recipe with measurements and details can be found DOWN BELOW (scroll to it) in the recipe card.
How do you make Vegan Shepherd’s Pie?
- Preheat the oven to 425F. Boil peeled potatoes in a pot of water for 20 minutes or so, until soft.
- Saute onions, carrots, peas, and mushrooms in veggie broth until soft.
- Add lentils, tomato paste, red wine, rosemary, thyme, rosemary, parsley, garlic, remainder of veggie broth, and salt to the pan. Stir well and saute for 5 minutes.
- Add lentil mixture into a 9×12 casserole dish and evenly distribute. Bake for 15 minutes.
- Strain potatoes and add them back to the pot with nutritional yeast, almond milk, garlic and water. Mash until smooth.
- Top casserole with mashed potato layer.
- Bake for another 15 minutes then broil on high for 10 minutes or until the top is golden brown. Enjoy!
- Step 1: First, boil the potatoes. Sauté the veggies and make the lentil mixture. Add lentil mixture to casserole dish and bake for 15 minutes.
- Step 2: Then, make the mashed potatoes and spread evenly on the casserole. Bake for another 15 minutes until golden and enjoy!
Commonly Asked Questions
Store in an air-tight container in the fridge for up to 5 days or store in an air-tight container in the freezer for up to 3 months. The best part – this is a dish that feeds the whole family. Don’t have a family to feed? Make a pan and eat it throughout the week, it’s delicious reheated and perfect for meal prepping.
Sure! You can add vegan butter to add richness and creaminess to the dish. I would add a couple melted tablespoons. To add more richness, you can also sauté the veggies in extra virgin olive oil if you’re not oil-free.
The top layer should be just golden brown and the sides might be bubbling a bit.
“I have made this several times. It always comes out absolutely delicious!”
– Pam
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Extra Helpful Tips
- Make sure to use cooked lentils before mixing them with the vegetables! Or use pre-cooked lentils.
- Mash the potatoes well so they’re not super chunky on the top layer.
- Bake until golden brown–you can turn on broil for the last 5 minutes of cooking so the top gets a little brown and crispy. It’s extra yummy!
- Don’t use sweetened milk in the potatoes. Make sure it’s unsweetened and plain.
- Store in the fridge for up to 4-5 days.
- Serve with Longevity Kale Salad or Holiday Tortellini Salad, and Vegan Quinoa Butternut Squash Stuffing.
If you tried this Vegan Shepherd’s Pie or any other recipe on my blog, please leave a 5-star rating and let me know how it went in the comments below. Thanks for visiting!
Vegan Shepherd’s Pie
Equipment
- 1 oven
- 1 casserole dish 9×13
- 1 pot
- 1 pan
Ingredients
Bottom Layer
- 1 yellow onion diced
- 1 can tomato paste 6 oz
- 3 cups lentils cooked, french or brown
- 2 cups carrots chopped
- 1 cup peas frozen
- 2 cups mini bella mushrooms chopped
- ½ cup red wine optional
- 1 ¼ cup vegetable broth
- ½ teaspoon thyme dried
- ½ teaspoon rosemary dried
- 1 teaspoon parsley dried
Mashed Potato Layer
- 6 yukon gold potatoes medium
- ¼ cup nutritional yeast
- 1 cup almond milk plain
- 1.5 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425F. Peel and chop the potatoes (size doesn’t have to be perfect since we’re mashing them) and bring a large pot of water to a boil. Once boiling, add potatoes into the pot and cook for about 20 minutes until fork tender.
- In a large non-stick pan or pot saute onions, carrots, frozen peas and mushrooms in ½ cup veggie broth until soft, completely cooked and all liquid is cooked out.
- Add lentils, tomato paste, red wine, rosemary, thyme, rosemary, parsley, garlic and salt to the pan and the remainder of the veggie broth (¾ cup). Stir and combine completely and saute for 5 minutes.
- Add into a 9×12 casserole dish and evenly distribute. Bake for 15 minutes.
- Stain potatoes and put them back into the pot. Add in nutritional yeast, almond milk, garlic and water and mashed until smooth.
- Remove the dish from the oven and top with mashed potatoes. I put them in a large zip loc and cut an inch off of one bottom corner then piped the potatoes on in rows. You can do this or simply add dollops of the potatoes and gently spread.
- Bake for another 15 minutes then broil on high for another 10 minutes or until the top is golden brown. Enjoy!
Notes
- Make sure to use cooked lentils before mixing them with the vegetables! Or use pre-cooked lentils.
- Mash the potatoes well so they’re not super chunky on the top layer.
- Bake until golden brown–you can turn on broil for the last 5 minutes of cooking so the top gets a little brown and crispy. It’s extra yummy!
- Don’t use sweetened milk in the potatoes. Make sure it’s unsweetened and plain.
- Store in the fridge for up to 4-5 days.
Roz Gould Keith says
I can’t wait to try this….love mashed potatoes and the idea of a one-pan meal.
SV says
Hello, my husband and I don’t do wine. What can we substitute it with in your recipe?
Danielle Keith says
Hi! You can sub more veggie broth.
Suzanne E says
Thank you for the recipe! This was delicious, and the best vegan shepherd’s pie we have tried!!! A perfect blend of flavors and warm, comfort goodness! If you add peas, what amount do you usually add?
Danielle Keith says
Omg yay! So glad. 1 cup frozen peas
Marilena Iordanou says
Made this the other day. First time cooking with no oil. It was delicious. I love the fact that it was simple and no hard to find ingredient needed. Well done!
Gabrielle says
I made this for dinner tonight and it was delicious! My kids and husband all loved it. Thank you!
Danielle Keith says
I am so glad! Thank you so much for your kind feedback
nicole says
how many people does this recipe serve?
Danielle Keith says
About 8!
Grace says
Can you freeze the leftovers?
Danielle Keith says
yes!!!!
Nicole LaBlonde says
can you freeze the leftovers?
Danielle Keith says
yes!
Lynn says
Excellent recipe, I did not miss the turkey!!
Excellent says
Made the Vegan Shepherd’s Pie — together with a few friends while “supervised” by Danielle via Zoom (or was it Teams?) — before Christmas last year. Easy to make, quick and delicious! All three of my three “carnivores” at home tried it, two of them admitted to like it, and one of them asked to have it for dinner again. Thank you, Danielle! It was very nice to meet you, too.
— Lana
Danielle Keith says
Thank you!!! so glad you loved it!
Pam says
I have made this a few times and it is always delicious!! It is a cold, rainy day where I am and I think this will be a perfect comfort food for today.
Pam says
I have made this several times. It always comes out absolutely delicious!!
Pam says
I have made this several times. It always comes out absolutely delicious!
Kaci says
Absolutely delicious
Robin Handleman says
What can I use in this recipe? That is not tomato based? Thank you.
Taylor says
Hi! Taylor from team HealthyGirl here!
Hmm..That is tough! There are not too many substitutes for tomato paste. You could try a red pepper paste, but the taste will be altered.
J says
AMAZING!