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!
