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Vegetarian shepherd’s pie with cheese and lentils

Vegetarian shepherd’s pie with cheese and lentils
    • Prep time:
    • Cooking time:
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  • Serves: 4-6

This Vegetarian shepherd's pie is packed with veg, lentils and some Cheddar cheese scattered over the mash topping which bumps up your protein intake and also adds a great bit of extra flavour, to help make this Vegetarian shepherd's pie extra tasty!

  • Vegetarian

Ingredients

  • 2 red onions
  • 2 carrots
  • 2 sticks of celery
  • 2 cloves of garlic
  • A small bunch of fresh rosemary
  • 2 x 400g tins of green lentils
  • olive oil
  • 1 x 400g tin of chopped tomatoes
  • 200ml vegetable stock
  • 1.5kg Desiree potatoes
  • sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 150g Cheddar cheese, grated
  • 100ml whole milk
  • A large knob of butter
  • 1 fresh nutmeg, for grating

Method

To prepare and cook your shepherd’s pie filling

  • Peel and roughly chop the onions and carrots
  • Trim and roughly chop the celery
  • Peel and finely chop the garlic cloves
  • Pick the rosemary leaves, discard the stalks
  • Finely chop half of leaves, put the rest to one side
  • Drain the lentils
  • Heat a large pan on a medium heat
  • Add a good lug of olive oil and the onions, carrots, celery and garlic
  • Cook gently with the lid on for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until softened
  • Add the chopped rosemary leaves, tinned tomatoes and stock and stir well
  • Bring to the boil, then add the drained lentils, reduce to a low heat and simmer gently for 30 minutes, or until thick and delicious

To make your mash topping

  • Peel the potatoes, cut them into halves and quarters depending on their size, and put them into a pan of salted, boiling water
  • Boil for about 10 minutes until tender
  • Stick a knife into them to check they’re soft all the way through
  • Drain in a colander and return them to the pan
  • Grate the Cheddar cheese
  • Add the milk, butter, most of the cheese and a pinch of salt and pepper to the pan
  • Finely grate in a few scrapings of nutmeg
  • Mash until smooth and creamy

To assemble and cook your shepherd’s pie

  • Preheat the oven to 190oC/375oF/gas 5
  • Transfer the lentil mixture to a large ovenproof baking dish
  • Spoon the mash evenly over the top, poke the remaining rosemary leaves into it to decorate and drizzle with olive oil
  • Sprinkle with the remaining grated cheese, then cook in the hot oven for 30 minutes, or until golden and bubbling
  • Serve with broccoli or peas, all covered in some tasty gravy!
A piece of the Vegetarian shepherd's pie with cheese and lentils, on a plate with broccoli and gravy.
Broccoli and gravy are the perfect accompaniments to this Vegetarian shepherd’s pie with cheese and lentils

I found the original recipe for this on Jamie Oliver’s site, years ago, but it seems to have been removed since, so hopefully my version is equally good.

Check out more recipes

Notes

Lentils are a great alternative to mince when making a shepherd’s pie, so if you want to try making a vegetarian dish without needing any Quorn or other meat style substitutes, this Vegetarian shepherd’s pie with cheese and lentils has you covered!