1-Hour Vegan Shepherd’s Pie

This was the best shepherd’s pie ever! Easy, affordable & delicious, thank you ? 10/10 from me and the rest of my fam ?

I am a flxtarian, however have been eating vegetatian for the padt two weeks. Never liked lentils, but spouse does, so I made this recipe (Sept 16, 2016). Can I honestly say that I LOVED THIS DISH and NEVER AGAIN will I ever make it with meat. I never thought I would say that, but this lentil shephard’s pie has never felt so good so my tummy and tastebuds. I want the leftovers tomorrow.

Great recipe! I tripled the quantity to make for a large crowd and it worked perfectly. I follwed the recipe exactly with no changes and it was very easy to cook, quick and very tasty. Thanks so much for sharing this.

This was very yummy. I added a carrot and celery with the onions and garlic as well as the frozen peas and corn at the last ten minutes as the recipe states. I also kept my pie in for 10 minutes at 425F and it wasn’t browning so I upped it to 450F for another 10 minutes and it was perfect. Also, the lentils kept soaking up the water so I think I added almost 2 cups more water throughout the cooking process. The boyfriend and I devoured this pie. It was perfect and it hit the spot.

Quick question: It probably doesn’t make too much of a difference, but is the nutrition information you calculated based on using 3 or 4 Tbsp of vegan butter? (The recipe calls for 3-4 Tbsp)

hi Dana! I love this recipe and have been making it for a while now (and have passed it to friends!) And I was wondering if it’s possible to make it and then freeze it? Or will that mess it up? I have to have surgery soon and I’m trying to figure out meals I can prep and freeze ahead of time. Thanks so much for all your delicious recipes!

This is a dish that I CRAVE – – it’s so full of flavor and simple to make! This recipe comes together so easily. You won’t be disappointed. Keep up the good work, you are killing it!

We often use lentils in most Mediterranean dishes but I never thought to bake it with a potato “crust” and omg it was stellar!!! I just toothed out of the oven and it looks diviiiiine!! Now I can’t wait for my husband to come home (he just turned vegan a few weeks ago) to savour this goodness with me. Thank you, Dana!!

Oh my gosh, I’ve found a new staple! This was one of the most delicious meals I’ve ever made! Cheap, easy, and packed with all sorts of healthy stuff! Thanks for the recipe!

This was to die for! I had doubts while making it….but once it hit my mouth, I went crazy! Fantastic! This, among many Minimalist Baker recipes, will become one of my go tos! I can’t get enough of your recipes! <3

I just made this recipe yesterday and it was definetely worth it ! Even my parents and my brother enjoyed it,haha.
I just added a bit of water and almond milk to the mashed potatoes but also a good pinch of nutmeg for the taste. Thank you for this wonderful dinner :)

Husband doesn’t like onions so I left those out. I couldn’t find uncooked lentils so I used two cans of cooked brown lentils. Instead of veg stock I used 4 veg bouillon cubes. This was a bit too much salt (even with low-salt cubes). So, next time, I’ll still used the canned lentils and just use two cubes of bouillon. I also think this recipe would be great with seitan instead of lentils, so I may try that in the future. :)

Yum yum and easy. I added two wooden spoon fulls of mash to thicken the lentils and veggies; next time I’ll try Maizena and see if it thickens a bit more. I’m definitely making this again.

I was worried my version would turn out bland since I’m on a HCLF vegan diet, but it turned out great and was easy to modify. I was out of thyme, so I subbed with some herbs de provence. I also added some vegan worcestershire. I used a 12oz bag of veggies instead of 10oz. Since I had to omit the Earth Balance, I just used some reserved potato cooking water and also added garlic powder, onion powder, garlic powder, nutritional yeast, and salt to tszuj it up.

Luckily, I live alone so I didn’t feel any shame when I licked my plate clean. I’ll definitely be making this again.

This is one of my favorite recipes! It’s always a go to when I have left over potatoes and don’t know what to do with them. I often have lentils, frozen veggies and vegetable broth on hand! Very simple, but delicious dish.

I like to soak my lentils for up to 12 hours before making this recipe, I use the same amount of liquids, I just add as much cornstarch as I need to bring it to the perfect “gravy” like consistency! Tastes amazing!

Thanks for this dish!

Dana, I cannot tell you how much I appreciate your blog. I make your miso soup recipe once a month and have tried countless others of your recipes. Most vegan blogs include recipes that are simply too complicated (OR EXPENSIVE!) for me to make, so I really appreciate this one.

-Reenz

This recipe disappears very quickly! It’s a number one favourite. I don’t think that I have ever seen any dish disappear so fast and no leftovers, just enough for seconds between 2 hungry kids and myself. I use canned brown lentils no added salt and frozen organic Broccoli, Spinach, Cauliflower with fresh organic Carrots, Celery and Mushrooms and lots of mashed potatoes. I used Nuttelex Sunflower margarine, although I should make my own Sunflower butter. I will. I also use Cashew milk to moisten the mashed potatoes for ease of spreading, and I also found that by thickening carefully with Tapioca flour, not too much, that it turns out perfectly. I adore it. Easy to make, and absolutely delicious. It snows here in the Winter and we often have windstorms with ice winds. We live on the outskirts of a village. I have four daughters, so 2 of them live in the city. I am making this again quite soon. It fills a Pyrex lasagne dish and I though that was huge! lol :) I hope that my experiences of making it help others on here and bring a smile to your good selves. Thank you Dana for the recipe. We love it! <3

I know it’s the middle of summer and everything, but I live in Norway. Norway is cold, and I therefore decided to make this for dinner today. I reduced the amount of ingredients as I was just cooking for my flatmate and me, but I still made four portions so we could have lunch tomorrow.

I tweaked the recipe in a few ways:
– I used red lentils
– I added tomato paste to the filling
– I used oil in the mashed potatoes
– I just used frozen peas and carrots

It came out FANTASTIC! Both my flatmate and I enjoyed this recipe, it was quite filling and all. I had one portion, FM ended up eating the three others. I was shocked, he’s a small fellow. No lunch for tomorrow, should have made more…

OK well this was delicious! I didn’t have a bag of veggies (don’t usually have those on hand) but used some corn and fresh zucchini, and served it with BBQ sauce if people wanted it. Even our most picky youngest child enjoyed it! Thanks, this one will be a keeper.

Can I use red lentils?

Should the lentils be soaked overnight first?

Hi ! I just made half the recipe and I really enjoyed it. I think I should of added more veggies, but I wasn’t measuring either. I didn’t cook my lentils all the way, but I liked the little crunch they gave. My husband and one of my boys (both carnivores) said it wasn’t bad. I will most definitely be making this again.. It’s on my favorites list!!! I also didn’t use the garlic or thyme, but with all the recipes I try I add or delete the ingredients I like/dislike and they always turn out just fine. Thank you for the recipe.

I am going to make this, but with a variety of lentils, sprouted. I sprout all my lentils to get the most protein and least fart out of them! th

Oh my god this is amazing! I added both mashed potatoes AND cornstarch into the lentil mixture to get it to the right consistency. I also listened to these comments and added more veg (almost doubled). I will definitely be making this again in the near future!

Just made this tonight. I followed the recommendation to start the lentils before the potatoes which was a great suggestion, this timing was great. The lentils were definitely thick enough, the potatoes covered the top just perfectly and browned nicely. It was good, but it didn’t blow me away. Maybe I had unfairly high expectations from reading all the other reviews :) It took me about 1 hour 15 minutes from start to finish, and then add the time to wait for it to cool.

This recipe is marked as gluten free but I know from personal experience that vegatable stock cubes are not, ordinarily, wheat free. Just to warn any coeliacs making this dish, not criticising the recipe as it can just be replaced with an alternative like boiling water.

This was great!
I tried swapping the potatoes with yams and that was yummy too.
Also I added a pinch of garam masala to it cause I used to do that with beef Shepards pie.

Delicious! I made this tonight with sweet potato instead of potato…one of the best dishes I have ever had. I made it a bit too watery like the above comment but instead of giving this meal less stars than it deserves and feeding myself mcd’s, I realized my mistake early on and scooped out lots of liquid before putting the sweet potato on top. It was still a bit watery when it came out but in twenty minutes when I came back for my second serving, it was totally thick and perfect. WOW! I would recommend this to everyone and making it with sweet potato’s tastes like thanksgiving :)

Ah-mazing. My 14 month-old even loved it. I did have to add quite a bit more water/broth, but the results were perfect! Thanks for the recipe!

“Traditional Shepherd’s pie contains ground beef” – I didn’t realise shepherds had taken to herding cows, now? I think you mean lamb ;)

This recipe is yummy and it makes a lot! I added hot soy milk to the mashed potatoes and replaced the vegan butter with a good amount of Just Mayo. If you’ve never tried mayo in mashed potatoes it is just divine! I also made a vegan, turkey style gravy to go over the top of the casserole since my husband loves gravy with mashed potatoes. Sooooo good! Lastly, when the casserole was nearly done baking I placed it on the middle oven rack and turned the broiler on for just a couple of minutes. It gave the top of the casserole a pretty, flecked golden brown color.

I love this blog for yummy vegan recipes. I have found so many household favorites on here! Can’t wait to try this one tonight!

Made this one again last night, it was delicious :) love your recipes!

My whole family loved this!
I made a few adjustments. Used herbes de province, nutritional yeast flakes and thickened it with cornstarch. Will be making it again.

Great recipe, thank you Dana. I’ve got my grown-up daughter staying a while; she’s vegan so this recipe has been perfect for a beginner like me to impress her with – and she was very impressed! I’m in the UK, so had to fiddle with conversions, but that was easy enough. I took advantage of some of the comments left by other users to ‘tweak’ your recipe a little too. I added some vegan worcester sauce, and some chopped and sauteed portabella mushrooms to the lentil mix, plus a little tomato puree. When it came to the mashed potato, I added some ‘vegan parmesan substitute’ sprinkled generously in the mashed potato and on top, plus a little ‘smoked paprika’ dusting to finish.
Once again, thank you Dana, and your other posters on here for their comments – a truly Delicious dish.

I loved this recipe! I cooked it for a group of four (expecting leftovers for my boyfriend and I, lol). I am new to cooking (adulting, really) so I was terrified to try it and have it fail, but it turned out so good! I even added some vegan cheese in between the layers of vegetables and potatoes. I actually found the recipe on pinterest, and the pin didnt say anything about frozen vegetables, so I bought all of the ingredients and went to start making it, pulled open this link and realized I was missing a major ingredient. I didnt have my car, or much time to spare, so I put in spinach and broccoli instead and it turned out fine! But I learned the lesson to always open up the full link before going to the store.

Thank you so much for sharing! Will try another one of your recipes soon! xo

Lia

Made this recipe and it was a great hit. Did not have Yukons and the baking potatoes i do have are quite dry even when boiled so I took off the peels and added a bag of TJ’s riced cauliflower to the reserved boiling water after removing the potatoes let them steep 5 minutes and then drained the cauliflower and added them the the potatoes and mashed – Wow it really made the potatoes creamy and smooth

I ended up making this a vegetarian dish, even though I normally cook vegan at home. I had some cream cheese and sour cream that was given to me that I wanted to use up. So, I added those 2 ingredients to the mashed potatoes (hence the vegetarian version). Other then that, the filling part of the recipe I left the same, with more of the same veg the recipe called for (again had a bunch lying around, wanted to put it to use). This was awesome! I love recipes that are 10 ingredients and under. Sheppard’s pie always seems like such an undertaking, but this recipe made it easy. Thanks so much for sharing, can’t wait to try another!

This was awesome! I am a vegan in transition and looking for great recipes. Thankfully my gf sent me to your site. Its even better on day 2.

This is the first time I have left a comment on a recipe. Since becoming vegan 18 months ago, I am only just getting used to a new way of cooking. This vegan shepherds pie is delicious with great flavour – my husband even said it tastes like it has meat in it! I varied a little by using a mix of sweet potato and white potato in the mash which was great. I also used fresh carrots added after the onion and frozen peas and corn before putting in the oven. Delicious!! Will definitely be making this again.

Delicious! The lentils and stock formed a perfect gravy! Added a tsp of mixed herbs in during the cooking. Lovely stuff!

Delicious!! Even my “alway-objecting-that-she-had-veganism-thrust-upon-her” daughter loved this one. Thanks for the great recipe

Made this for Easter dinner, and it was delish! I nearly doubled the veggies and added celery, added a splash of Bragg liquid aminos and Marsala cooking wine, and scraped the potatoes with a fork, then sprayed with oil before putting it in the oven. I broiled it to brown it a little faster. Very good!

Made this tonight, and it was great! Very satisfying and comforting. I cooked the lentils for about 23-25 minutes before adding a 16 oz bag of frozen veggies. I added more because I only had a 9.5 X 14 pan. I think I used 3.3 lbs of russet potatoes, and boiled/mashed them with the skins on. I used about a 1/4 to 1/3 cup of the potatoes to mix in with the lentil/veggie mix, and it was fine. For those who don’t know: carefully spoon small amounts of the mashed potatoes all over the first layer. Resist the urge to spread/smooth them until you have it all covered. Then use a spoon or a fork to smooth them out. We also used 5 cloves of garlic and sprinkled paprika on the potatoes before baking. Yum!!!

My husband and I are adding this tasty dish to our dinner rotation! I added a layer of sauerkraut before topping with potato and it was wonderful!

I made this tonight and it was absolutely delicious. I did make a few adjustments. My husband isn’t a fan of lentils, so I use soy meatless crumbles instead. I eyeballed the veg. broth but I would say I probably only used about 2 cups total (I didn’t need it to cook lentils, so it makes sense to use less than what’s called for). I also did take some of the liquid out to mix with cornstarch to thicken it up a bit. I thought I would end up adding more spices to the mix but it was actually quite delicious with just thyme, salt and pepper. This hearty meal was devoured by my carnivorous husband, so I would definitely recommend it for someone cooking for a omnivorous mix of people, or to take to a vegan Thanksgiving or holiday party. I do love lentils, so I plan to make it as written at some point, but another benefit of the meatless crumbles is that it cuts your cooking time in half. LOVED this, thanks for posting!!!!

This is a great alternative to Shepherd’s pie! My husband just became vegan two months ago, and I’ve been struggling to find good recipes for dinner. This is a keeper! A little time consuming, but well worth it! 3lb of potatoes seemed a bit much, so I used less the second time, great either way.

Yum! Thank you again! I was going to make this for dinner, but ended up making it for lunch :)! My husband will have to have the left overs. I ended up using a vegetable stock that had more of a mushroom taste to it and it was SO GOOD. I followed your recipe and the thickness was perfect- needed to add lots of salt and pepper to get some flavor going. I did my mash potatoes in the kitchen aid- with melted vegan butter and almond milk. Worked like a charm :)! I think we will be making this at our church Lenten dinner next week. Thanks!

I made this tonight and it was heavenly! I was a bit hesitant as I have tried other recipes with lentils and I wasn’t a fan. This pleasantly surprised me! Since going vegan many of the recipes I have tried have gone straight into the garbage which has been disappointing. This recipe will be going into my collection of favourites and probably made weekly. Thank you! I can’t wait to try some of your other recipes!

Great stuff. Mixed in carrots, squash, and a handful of other fresh veggies. Used sweet potatoes instead of white potatoes for taste and nutrition. Baked for nearly an hour to dry out the lentils a bit more and to harden the potato crust. All good moves. Picky wife loved it. Pickier 20 month old didn’t.

I made this for St. Patrick’s Day dinner and it was very good. The proportions were fine but I made a tapioca flour and hot water mix (1 tbls tapioca flour and 1/4 cup of water) and mixed it into the lentil/veggie broth mixture. This made the broth with lentils much more like a thick gravy. I found one bag of frozen veggies worked great, but can see making this with fresh veggies in the future.

Caramelizing the onions well makes for a much better mouth feel.

This is the BOMB DIGITTY!!! here are my tips to make it ultra perfect:

• use big brown organic lentils.
• make the potatoes 3/4 yukon gold and 1/4 sweet potatoes.
• Substitute half the onion quantity for leek.
• sautéed a cup of mushrooms on the side and add it along with the frozen veggies.
• put at least 2 cups of veggies!
• frozen peas do the trick but skip the whole mix… Along with the mushrooms, add canned sweet corn kennels and 2 carrots finelly chopped (it will cook in the last 10 minutes, no need to precook).
• add a little almond milk and a bit more vegan butter to the potatoes to make them extra soft.
• sprinkle some smoked paprika on the top before throwing in the oven and VOILA!

Soooooo good.

Hi im about to try this out…do we peel the potatoes or leave the skin on?

A newbie to preparing shepherd’s pie, this recipe is delish! But “carefully top with mashed potatoes”? My mashed potatoes sank to the bottom and formed islands. Still tasty, just way less attractive.

Great recipe! I substituted walnuts and black-eyed peas; half sweet potatoes; and Brussels sprouts, asparagus, corn, broccoli. It was fantastic and so simple: perfect!

I just made this tonight and it is sooo good! I used sweet potato topping instead of white potatoes and added some celery that I needed to use up. I am new to this site and absolutely loving it. I made the buffalo chick pea wraps last night and those were great too!

I made this oil free and added black garlic instead of regular and it turned out sooo good. I will for sure make this again!

This dish was terrific. Very hearty, wintery and easy.

I made a few changes:

– I put the lentils on before the potatoes, because they take longer.
– I added celery to the onions and garlic.
– I used fresh veggies. Mushrooms, zucchini, asparagus, corn, peas, carrots.
– I used 4 large potatoes. Perfect.
– I found the potato to be quite dry and bland, so I mashed in 1/2 a cup of vegan mayonnaise. Delish.
– I broiled the dish for an extra 10 minutes, to crisp up the tops of the potato.
– I served it with vegan worcestershire sauce and mild salsa.

OMW I love this recipe!! I made it last night but used cauliflower mash and added mushrooms! Thanks for posting this! I am a vegetarian newbie and this is going straight to my cook book!
San xx

Thank you so much for this wonderful recipe! I am vegetarian and was looking for some easy casserole dinner ideas when I came across your recipe. My husband and son, who both are meat eaters enjoyed this meal. It was warming to the soul and very satisfying. I’m up visiting my father this weekend where it is -7 and am making this for dinner tonight; can’t wait for him to try it! I’ve also made this and shared with a friend who is on some funky diet where he only eats boiled rice and potatoes. He is from overseas and thanked me saying it was tasty and really helped him to go to the bathroom lol.

I also LOVE your black bean brownie recipe. I always double the recipe and freeze half of the batch. I love having one for dessert with some almond milk. The brownies are a favorite in our house.

Thank you for sharing!

Stephanie

Just finished making this (its cooling as I type) and it looks, smells, and tastes delicious!

Just want to say I made this pie tonight and it was delicious! I halved the recipe as I was making it for 2 and I came out great. My meat-eating boyfriend loved it too (I’m the vegetarian…), and we decided you shouldn’t call it a Shepherds Pie because it’s so tasty it doesn’t need a common comparison ;-)
Thanks for the recipe – we’ll definitely be making this again!

This recipe is amazing. The only thing I added was a couple bay leaves (along with the fresh thyme) to the lentil-veggie mix. Every bit as comforting and rich as the traditional recipe. I am impressed!

Just made a doube batch tonight- planning to freeze the filling in tubs to make into shepherd’s pies after our second child is born. Super tasty and nourishing!! I was worried that the fresh thyme and stock alone wouldn’t provide enough flavour, but all I added was a little chilli and it was perfect. Good simple hearty fare. It’ll be a regular from now on. Thanks!!

I love this! Really easy, I didn’t have to stand watching it. Normally I give any leftovers to my ex but I’m so keeping them this time haha, thankyou so much

I made this for dinner tonight for the fourth or fifth time. It is my go to end of week dish. When I am out of money and have only left overs in the fridge; I dig some potatoes out of the garden, add left over vegetables to the lentils and voila! Perfect, healthy, vegan, yummy, whole food dinner. :-)

I love this website! Thank you again Dana, You make being vegan so easy :-)

PS: This time round I added your vegan Parmesan mix to the top of the potato and let it toast in the oven, delish!

My brother made this for me after flying into Boise for Christmas dinner. It was so incredible! We all loved it, including my 3 year old niece. I didn’t think it would taste so good with such few ingredients. Now it’s on my and my brother’s easy week night recipe collections!

Another delicious recipe for a cold winter evening! I didn’t change a thing!

Delicious. I agree with posters that suggested starting the lentils first. I also found the potatoes rather dry and will add some liquid the next time. I will also double the veggies. The recipe, however, was surprisingly good with relatively few ingredients and little prep, so I’ll definitely do it again. Thank you.

Hi, thank you for this recipe, made it last night and it was so good! I added a bit of rice milk, half a sweet potato to the mash and the rest of it to the filling and used fresh green beans, frozen peas, no corn or carrot.

It was delicious! Green lentils are a favourite in my household!

I made this tonight and it is a wonderful winter meal! Only change I made was making the topping roughly 3:2 sweet potato to potato as well as the addition of TVP. I used 1 cup lentils and three cups of vegetable broth and added in 1/2 cup rehydrated TVP along with the frozen vegetables.

Thank you so much for your recipes! I’ve made several now and they’re all hits in my household!

Im making this as we speak! Thank you so much for the recipe! I splurged a bit and decided to add some red wine to the filling as it was simmering. Cant wait to eat this, it smells amazing!! :3

Wow comfort food at it’s finest – yumm! Easy and delicious – two of my favourite things. The only thing I would suggest is to start the potatoes after you’ve got the lentils cooking. Otherwise fantastic as usual – thanks for sharing this!

This was delicious! Very hearty on a cold winter night.

Are these canned or dry lentils? Thanks!!

This was super delicious! I added a can of cannellini beans to the veggie mixture which helped thicken it. Yummy, hearty dish. Thanks for sharing!

I wanted to take the time to thank you for this recipe because I have made this MANY times now and it has saved me! Cooking for non-vegetarians is always a challenging because you want something hearty and filling, and this recipe has both. Thank you again for this and for the many other delicious recipes that you share!

So Good!

I used fresh vegetables instead of frozen, doubling the weight (20 oz) to make sure the pie was super full of veggie goodness. Doing this meant I did not need to thicken the mixture at all.

Thank you for coming up with such a delicious and healthy comfort-food vegan dinner. I will be back to try all your recipes :-)

Just made this, and absolutely loved it!! Thank you for sharing this recipe :)

I make this using meaty portabellas, I will make it next time with lentils, I love lentils.
I also make my own broth using red wine. Sometimes the veggie broth is just too salty.

Love this recipe- seriously a staple in our house during the chilly months! My carnivore hubby isn’t a big fan of lentils, but I’ve discovered that if I swap beef broth for vegetable broth, he doesn’t mind the lentils or miss the ground beef. Not exactly vegetarian, but it works for us.

I LOVED this. I made it for friends giving and it was fantastic. The only thing i will say is that it took a little bit more earth balance to make the potatoes just a tad bit more creamy, but maybe thats just because it’s the holidays and my fat intake has skyrocketed. UGH so good. Thank you for the recipe.

Taste was good but needs more veggies. One 10-oz bag was not enough. Will double next time.

This might be my favorite comfort food recipe of yours. It is so delicious. I made this for the first time for dinner guests, which I never do, because, what if it doesn’t turn out to be good? But that’s never a concern with your recipes. Our guests loved it. And it’s been great for lunch days afterwards. I served it with your vegan dinner rolls. Perfect combo.