Easy Shepherd’s Pie with Lentils

Our easy Shepherd’s pie with lentils recipe will warm you up on a cold evening. Served hot with a rich vegan gravy and fresh greens (our favourites are tender stem broccoli or green beans). A traditional Shepherd’s pie is made of minced lamb topped with a potato and then baked. Our plant-based alternative substitutes the lamb for dried red lentils.

We’ve made a vegan cottage pie recipe before, which is a similar dish to Shepherd’s pie but traditionally uses a beef mince instead of lamb. Of course, we swapped out the beef mince for a plant-based store-bought substitute. However, there are far fewer off-the-shelf options for a vegan lamb mince than a beef mince. So we decided to try out a lentil lamb Shepherd’s pie instead.

Red lentils have a naturally nutty flavour, which matches well with the earthy and nutty tones that a lamb mince offers. And when seasoned with some salt and even soy sauce you can enhance its flavours. The umami flavour of soy sauce brings a meaty, salty and sweet range of flavours to the lentils. But it’s an optional ingredient as we’re already going to soak the red lentils in vegetable stock and tomatoes, so the flavour will not be lacking regardless.

Between our cottage pie recipe and this one, we have tried several different potato varieties for the pie topping. As we live in England, we’ve settled on either King Edward or Maris Piper potatoes because they are best suited to being mashed, and a naturally fluffier than other types. Having lived in the USA too though, we can tell you that our recommendation would be to use a Russet. This will also yield a lighter, fluffier mashed potato to bake on top of the lentils.

One of the reasons that we started Easy Vegan Grub, was to make simple plant-based versions of long standing and much loved recipes that you and your family will already be familiar with. That being considered we’ve opted for frozen peas and carrots in this recipe, as well as canned tomatoes. This saves on prep time and keeps things a little bit more affordable, plus a few less pots of water to boil and dishes to wash when you have a hungry family eagerly waiting at the table. But feel free to go fresh, and even try out our optional ingredients that we’ve listed.

For an easy but incredibly flavourful onion gravy to pour over your vegan lentil Shepherd’s pie just use the instructions in our vegan bangers and mash recipe and you will have a velvety rich onion gravy in minutes.

Lentil Shepherd’s Pie Ingredients

1 kg potatoes (King Edward or Maris Piper)

400 g dried red lentils

1 yellow onion

400 g can of chopped tomatoes

300 ml vegetable stock

1 cup frozen peas

1 cup frozen diced carrots (or boiled fresh carrot)

2 Tbsp plant-based butter

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 Tbsp soy sauce (optional)

1/2 Tbsp wholegrain mustard (optional)

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg (optional)

Ground salt and pepper (to taste)

How to make Shepherd’s Pie with Lentils

So you’ll start with food prep by peeling and chopping the 1 kg of potatoes into cubes. Maris Piper or King Edward potatoes will work best for your fluffy centred, crispy-coated pie topping. That’s because they’re “floury” varieties of potato which are lighter and mash better than a more waxy type, like Charlotte’s potatoes.

The second step of preparations before cooking is to peel and dice, into small pieces, one single large yellow onion. You can use another onion, a sweet onion would work well, but avoid a red onion as its sharper and spicier flavours are less suited to a Shepard’s pie.

Place the potatoes you diced into a large pan, then cover with water and season with a few cracks of salt. Bring the water to a boil and leave the potatoes to bubble away for 15 minutes.

Next in a large saucepan add the 400 g of dried red lentils with the can of chopped tomatoes and juices, as well as the 300 ml of vegetable stock. Stir everything together well and bring to a boil and then simmer gently uncovered for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the lentils have soaked up all the liquid.

While the potatoes and lentils are cooking, set a frying pan over medium to high heat, then add half a tablespoon of olive oil along with the onion you’ve already diced, and fry for 5 minutes until soft. Better soft than browned in this case as the onions will continue to cook in the oven with the finished pie anyway.

Once the lentils have soaked up all the tomato juices and vegetable stock, add the cup of frozen peas and one of the frozen diced carrots, and stir them into the warm pulses to thaw. You can normally purchase in most supermarkets a frozen pea and carrot blend from which you can add 2 cups to the cooked lentils. Or if you only have frozen peas you can use two fresh carrots, diced and par-boiled so that they are not too firm compared to all the other textures in the pie once cooked.

While the taste of lamb mince is not as bold as other meat like beef, it is still very rich in flavour. You will be missing this particular flavour by using lentils, which is why we recommend adding at least one tablespoon of soy sauce, stirred into the cooked lentil vegetable medley to add some umami and saltiness that will deepen the flavours of your lentil Shepard’s pie.

At this point you should preheat your oven to 220°C / 200°C Fan / 425°F / Gas Mark 7. You can build up the Shepard’s pie while the oven is warming up.

Check that the potatoes are ready by prodding them with a sharp knife to see that they are soft in the centre, then drain off the water and return them to the pan over the lowest heat possible. Mash the potatoes smooth with 2 tablespoons of vegan butter (and a teaspoon of wholegrain mustard, a 1/4 teaspoon of ground nutmeg, and a few cracks of salt and pepper for some optional seasonings).

Finally, pour the cooked lentil vegetable mixture from the pan into the bottom of an oven dish and spread it out evenly, ready to add the mashed potato topping.

On top of the mince fill the remaining space in the dish with the mashed potatoes, spreading this out evenly and then rake the surface with a fork. We suggest using a spatula to smooth the potato over the lentil filling, it makes for an even top surface before adding texture with a fork.

Finally cook in the centre of the oven for 20 minutes, until the surface of the potato topping is crisp and golden. Then remove and serve warm. This lentil Shepherd’s pie goes well with a thick velvety vegetable or even onion gravy.