Vegan Shepherd's Pie
Today was a weird day. I taught a holiday vegan cooking class and I just felt super stressed about it. I teach cooking classes all the time, but holiday recipes are not as common for me (you know... the whole once a year thing) and I get more anxious about how the food will turn out. I taught the same recipes to a different crowd two days ago and will teach a new group next week. This means that going into this week I needed to have some bomb-good recipes. I've been playing around for a bit and I had a few major MAJOR flops, but this recipe I'm sharing today was developed by examining what I did wrong. So that is a positive. Also remember... ketchup can go a long way in masking horrible food. Shepherd's Pie is basically a casserole of cooked meat and vegetables and then topped with mashed potatoes. You bake it in the oven until the the mashed potatoes are brown and crispy on top. It is divine. The class went well in the sense that the food tasted great but I felt stressed and frazzled and frustrated about my frazzledness... and THEN the day ended with me on the side of the road with a smoking engine. My husband came to get me and we called AAA. I'm glad the day is over, I'm glad I'll soon be hunkered down for the night, and I am also glad I have leftover shepherd's pie in the fridge for tomorrow. Remember... at the end of the day no matter what... it could be worse. God is good. Amen.
Recipe adopted from:
Oat Burgers: craplikeachamp.com and Oatmeal Croquettes: craplikeachamp.com
Tahini Mashed Potatoes: wholefoodsmarket.com
Salad Dressing: Vegan Cashew Caesar Dressing
Casserole Ingredients
- 5 c water
- 1/2 c braggs liquid aminos (or low sodium soy sauce)
- 1/4 c walnut meal (or other nut meal would work or 2 tbsp olive oil)
- 1/4 c honey
- 1 tbsp garlic powder
- 1 tbsp onion powder
- 1 tbsp oregano
- 2 tsp cumin
- 2/3 c onion, chopped
- 2/3 c celery, chopped
- 2 1/2 c beans (pre-cooked or from a can)
- 5 c old fashioned rolled oats
- 1/2 c quick oats
Tahini Mashed Potatoes Ingredients
- 2 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes
- 4-5 garlic cloves, peeled
- 1/4 cup tahini
- 1 cup plain unsweetened almond milk
- 2 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 ½ tsp sea salt
Directions
Loaf:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Wash and chop onion and celery into tiny pieces.
- In a food processor, blender, or coffee grinder blend walnuts into a meal (don’t over blend or it will turn into walnut butter.
- In a large pot bring to boil water, liquid aminos, walnut meal (or olive oil), honey, garlic powder, onion powder, oregano, cumin, and onion and celery pieces
- Mash beans up into almost a refried bean consistency (whole beans can sometimes burn quicker or become too hard).
- When the water and spices are boiling add 5 cups of old fashioned rolled oats, mix and then also add mushed beans.
- Cook for 5 minutes stirring occasionally.
- After 5-10 minutes if the oat mixture is still watery and needs to be thickened up a bit add the quick oats and stir until all the extra liquid has been absorbed. Remove from burner.
- Spread about 2/3 of ingredients into a 9×13 casserole dish, the rest can be put into a bread pan for a smaller Shepard’s pie or formed into burgers.
Potatoes:
- Place potatoes in a large saucepan, cover with cold water by 1 inch and bring to a boil.
- Lower heat, partially cover pan, and simmer until potatoes are very tender, 15 to 20 minutes.
- Drain, return potatoes, add minced garlic, lemon juice, almond milk, salt, and tahini. Mash with a potato masher or large fork until very very smooth (or throw it all into a large food processor and process until smooth and creamy.
- Spread all of the mashed potatoes over the loaf.
- Bake for 60 minutes.
- Enjoy!
OMG! Finally! A vegan Shepherd’s Pie without lentils! I cannot WAIT to try this! Thank you!
😂😂😂 I didn’t even think about that! Lol I Wanted something for thanksgiving and made 2 horrible lentil monstrosities and finally gave up and used the oatmeal burger recipe! Ha! Lol it’s really really really good!