Ingredients

• 8-10 potatoes peeled
• 2 medium onions
• 2 large carrots
• 10 button mushrooms (or equivalent)
• 4 stalks of celery
• 2 garlic cloves
• 200g brown or green lentils (dry)
• 2 tbsp fresh parsley
• 1 big teaspoon of mixed herbs (feel free to use more if you want)
• ½ – 1 teaspoon of cinnamon (yes you read right – cinnamon)
• 1 tbsp plain flour
• 1 tbsp soya butter
• 1 tbsp tomato puree
• 1 vegetable stock cube
• 500ml boiling water
• Salt and pepper

Preparation

• Preparation Soak your lentils in advance (2/3 hours before cooking ideally). Method Soak your lentils in water for 2/3 hours before you start cooking. If you don’t do this they will take a lot longer to cook. Peel, wash and put your potatoes on to boil. Finely dice your onions, carrots, celery and mushrooms and crush your garlic. Put a casserole pot on a medium heat and add your soya butter. When melted add the onions and sweat them off until they start to go translucent. Add the garlic and sweat until both the onion and garlic are soft and translucent. Add the rest of the veg and cook for another 10 minutes – stirring constantly. When the veg has softened and started to brown add in your flour and stir through so it coats the veg. Then add the flavourings – salt, pepper, cinnamon, mixed herbs and parsley. Stir these through. Make 500ml of stock using your water and vegetable stock cube. Mix the tomato puree into the stock. Then start adding your stock to the veg very slowly. Every time your pour some stock into the veg stir it through until it has absorbed and slightly thickened. Then drain your lentils and them to the pot and stir through. If this makes the mixture too dry add some more boiling water in small amounts. If you need to add a lot of water you can throw in another half a stock cube so you don’t dilute all the flavour. Leave the mixture to simmer for around 40-45 minutes but check it and stir it constantly to make sure it doesn’t burn. Keep the heat low to avoid this happening. Add in a about a tablespoon of brown sauce at the end of the cooking process and stir it though. When the lentil mix is cooked through add it to your baking dish. Mash your potatoes with soya butter and unsweetened soya milk or another plant milk (I would not recommend anything sweet or almond milk). Spread the mashed potato over the top of the lentil mix, smoothing it out with a fork. We added some parsley on top. If you have any Violife cheese you could add this over the top but that is optional. Then bake the shepherd’s pie a hot oven for 20-30 minutes until the potato starts to go golden brown. If you don’t bake it until the following day it will need longer. When it’s ready put your hands together and give thanks that NO animal was harmed in the making of your dinner and enjoy! Like this recipe? Sign up to Veganuary today to get recipes like this delivered directly to your inbox.