Recipe: De-licious Lentil Shepherd’s Pie
This is the first time I am posting a recipe — it was that good. My husband and I have been eating it lunch and dinner for several days. Two out of three kids ate it, too! Yum!
First, a little story about how I found the recipe…
One of the blogs I read is a packaging design blog called TheDieLine.com. (I have eclectic interests, what can I say.) Anyway, they had a post about the packaging for this vegan shepherd’s pie, which I thought was hilarious:
After a good chuckle, especially about the “lental rhymes with mental” bit, I thought, hmm, shepherd’s pie WOULD be yummy. So, I started flipping through some of my vegan slow cooker recipe books and found a recipe billed as the “ultimate comfort food dish” in 125 best Vegetarian Slow Cooker recipes by Finlayson
My husband, who became a vegetarian to try to manage his cholesterol better, kept asking me, are you sure there isn’t beef in here? The lentils are very meaty. (I personally don’t like the “fake” veggie meats and crumbles. When I eat vegetarian food I like to like it for what it is, not try to trick myself into thinking I’m a meat eater eating meat and, oopsie, look, it’s really just cleverly disguised vegetables!)
Alright, the details already! (Oh, and a nice thing is this cookbook gives US and metric measurements, btw.)
- Saute 2 cups (500 mL) onions, 4 stalks celery, and 2 large carrots until vegetables are soft.
- Add 1T (15mL) chopped garlic, 1t (5mL) salt, 1/2t (2mL) dried thyme, and 1/2t (2mL) cracked black peppercorns and cook for a minute or so.
- Add 1.5 cups (375mL) brown or green lentils and 1 28oz (796mL) can of chopped tomatoes including juice. Bring to boil.
- Transfer to slow cooker.
- Stir in 2 cups (500mL) of vegetable stock (almost any stock will do).
Now, I doubled the recipe and cooked it like that on low for 7-8 hours (high 3-4 hours). Then, I whipped up some mashed potatoes to top it with. The recipe says you can add cheese on top, but, yuck, I don’t like cheese. I ground some pepper on it instead. You can also do steps 1-3 ahead of time and refrigerate it until you are ready to cook it.
My husband already made me promise to cook up a bunch and freeze portions for him to eat while I’m in China next month.
Good thing it’s lunch time. I’m going to go heat up some lentil shepherd’s pie leftovers right now!
Loading ...
Can’t wait to try this recipe. My husband is trying to make the transition to becoming vegetarian. So far, he’s cut out red meat, but his favorite meal is shepherd’s pie. Perhaps this will be a good substitute for him.
Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for the recipe! I will give it a try….
Success is determined by those whom prove the impossible, possible.JamesW.PenceJames W. Pence
I love lentils! I have added a lot more legumes to my diet……….so full of fiber and protein!
For a true artist, difficulties become opportunities and clouds become solid present.AlejandroJodorowskyAlejandro Jodorowsky
This recipe sounds great. I actually have this cookbook at home but I have never made anything out of it.
Looks like I’ll be starting with Shepherd’s Pie. Thank you for sharing your review.
Everyone carries a room about inside them. This fact can even be proved by means of the sense of hearing. If someone walks fast and one pricks up one’s ears and listens, say at night, when everything round about is quiet, one hears, for instance, the rattling of a mirror not quite firmly fastened to the wall.FranzKafkaFranz Kafka, The Blue Notebooks
It’s a scary time … this is how the Roman Empire fell. We’re dancing as Rome burns.JulianneMooreJulianne Moore, on our society’s obsession with celebrity
A man’s head is his castle.JosephHellerJoseph Heller, Something Happened