When I was a kid on scout camp, I saw my Scout Leader doing something I thought was SUPER FREAKY. He emptied a whole jar of fruit chutney into the Cottage Pie mix he was making. Yes. Fruit chutney – the condiment with SULTANAS (RAISINS, if you’re from the states). My confusion was real and happening. But that night, I ate the BEST shepherd’s pie ever and have never forgotten to add the sacred fruit chutney to pie again.
Now I’m in quarantine, so I don’t have fruit chutney. But I did find some onion jam in the depths of the pantry! I’m happy to say that it has proved a worthy substitute and I’m happy to share the results here with you.
Vegan Shepherd’s Pie
Vegan Shepherd’s Pie
Ingredients
MASH
- 4-5 potatoes (total 1kg-1.2kg)
- 50g vegan butter
- 1/2 cup soy milk
- salt and pepper, to taste
FILLING
- 2 tbsp oil
- 2 onions (320g)
- 2 carrots (210g)
- 2 tsp minced garlic
- 1/2 tsp dried thyme leaves
- 1/2 tsp dried marjoram leaves
- 1 sprig rosemary (leaves only, chopped roughly)
- 1/4 tsp dried ground sage
- 3 1/2 tbsp tomato paste
- 3 1/2 tbsp tomato paste
- cup onion jam (or fruit chutney! See* for more subs)
- 2 cups TVP (textured vegetable protein), dried
- 2cups + 1/2 cup vegetable stock
- 1/2 cup red wine
- 1/2 cup water (room temp)
- 1 tbsp cornflour
OTHER
- Extra vegan butter or olive oil, for brushing on top of potatoes (optional)
- Extra rosemary, for sprinkling on top of potatoes (optional)
Instructions
MASH
- Peel potatoes and chop into small ~2cm cubes.
- Place potatoes in a large pot and cover with water. Add 1/2 tbsp salt to the water. Bring potatoes to the boil and boil for around 10-15 minutes or until potatoes are soft (use a fork to test if you can poke all the way through a cube of potato).
- You can start filling prep while your potatoes are cooking!
- Drain potatoes and put them into a mixing bowl. Mash the potatoes with a fork or masher. Add vegan butter and soy milk and mix well until you have smooth, fluffy mash!
- Season with salt (I use just over 1 tsp salt for 1kg potatoes) and pepper then set aside.
FILLING PREP
- Finely chop onions and carrots.
- Pour2 cups of HOT vegetable stock into a large bowl with the dried TVP and soak TVP for about 5 minutes until it’s fluffy and the texture is like mince. No need to drain.
COOKING
- Preheat oven to 200ºC.
- Heat oil in a large pot.
- Add onions and carrot and cook until soft (3-5 minutes).
- Add garlic, thyme, marjoram, rosemary, sage and tomato paste and stir in. Cook for a minute or two!
- Add onion jam, TVP, wine and remaining vegetable stock.
- Dissolve1 tbsp of corn flour into the 1/2 cup water, and add to the pot.
- Cook for a further 5 minutes, stirring until all the alcohol cooks out. Sauce should becomes nice and thick!
- TASTE to see if it needs more seasoning – your onion jam/fruit chutney• may be sweeter than mine, in which case try adding a little more tomato paste for saltiness/acidity. Or maybe it just needs salt!
- Transfer mix into a deep baking dish (mine was 22x34cm) and spread mince out in an even layer.
- Dollop potato mash all over the top and then use a fork to spread it out, covering all the mince.
- Brush oil or melted vegan butter on top and scatter some fresh rosemary on top.
- Bake for 20 minutes at 200ºC.
- Broil(the grill function) for a further 10 minutes until the top of the potato is golden and crispy (or bake for longer – you might need to turn the temperature up, so keep an eye on it!!)
- Serve immediately!
- *I do believe most items in the realm of tomato or onion chutney/relish would work as long as they are quite sweet. The sweetness is the key to a very delicious pie! So YES to caramelised onion relish, onion chutney, sweet tomato relish and tomato chutney as equally worthy substitutes. I was surprised to find so much onion jam at my supermarket when I looked, so take a look in the sauces/relish/pickles section and I’m sure you’ll find something great!! Corn relish has also been reported to have excellent results!
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
One Response
Hi Liz, can you please let me know how much of the onion jam I need as it doesn’t say.