Vegan Shepards Pie

 

4 individual pies or 1 large pie. Preheat oven to 170°C fan. 50 minutes

Ingredients

600g floury potatoes
4tbsp vegetable oil
15g dried porcini mushrooms soaked in hot water for 15 minutes (keep the water)
1 large leek sliced
1 small onion roughly diced
2 carrots roughly diced
1 veg stock
2 garlic cloves
1 tbsp tomato pureé
1tsp smoked paprika
half a butternut squash roughly diced
1tsp marjoram
2tsp thyme
2tsp sage
2 celery sticks sliced
1 tin chickpeas
200g frozen peas
200g frozen spinach
2tbsp olive oil
half a pack of fresh parsley

Method

1. Boil the potatoes unpeeled in a large pan for 40 mins until the skins begin to split and set aside to cool.

2. Heat the vegetable oil in a large heavy-based pan or casserole, add the mushrooms, leeks, onion, carrots and stock cube. Cook gently for 5 minutes until the vegetables are soft. 3. Add the garlic, tomato pureé, paprika, squash and herbs. Turn up the heat and cook for 3 minutes, add the celery and cook for a few more minutes.

4. Tip in the chickpeas along with the water and the reserved mushroom stock. Follow with the peas and spinach and stir well then season and turn off the heat and set aside.

5. Peel the potatoes and discard the skins. Mash roughly a sixth of the potatoes and stir into the pot, break the rest into chunks, mix with the olive oil and parsley then season.

6. Divide the mix evenly between the individual pots (or leave in the casserole if making one large pie) and top with the potatoes. Cook for 20 minutes (or 40-45 minutes for a large pie) until the potatoes are golden brown and serve with green beans or broccoli.