Lentil Shepherd's Pie

Where This Goes Wrong

Brown the mushrooms dry before any oil. It is the single biggest source of savour in the dish.

Seal the mash to the edges of the dish or the filling boils up the sides.

The filling is better made a day ahead and is a good stew in its own right.

Making Lentil Shepherd's Pie

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1. Heat a large pan over high heat with no oil and add the mushrooms. Cook 6 minutes without much stirring, until they release their liquid, the pan dries and they begin to squeak and brown.

   Mark done

2. Add 2 tablespoons of the oil, the onions, carrots and celery, and cook 12 minutes over medium heat until soft and starting to colour.

   Mark done

3. Add the garlic for 1 minute, then the tomato purée, and cook 3 minutes until it turns brick red and sticks slightly.

   Mark done Start 1 min timer

4. Pour in the wine and let it bubble hard for 3 minutes, scraping the base clean.

   Mark done Start 3 min timer

5. Add the lentils, stock, soy sauce, Marmite, thyme, bay, salt and pepper. Simmer, part-covered, 35 minutes until the lentils are tender and the mixture is thick enough to hold a channel behind the spoon.

   Mark done

6. Meanwhile boil the potatoes in salted water from cold, 18 to 20 minutes, until a knife slides in with no resistance. Drain and steam dry in the pan for a minute.

   Mark done Start 18 min timer

7. Mash with the olive oil first, then the warm plant milk, salt, white pepper and nutmeg. Oil before liquid, exactly as with butter.

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8. Fish out the bay leaves, tip the filling into a 3 litre dish, and spread the mash over in spoonfuls, sealing it right to the edges.

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9. Ridge the top with a fork — the ridges are what crisp — and bake at 200°C / 400°F for 30 minutes until browned and bubbling at the edges. Rest 10 minutes.

   Mark done Start 30 min timer

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Why the Method Works

Meat brings glutamate and browned proteins, and a vegan version has to find both elsewhere. Mushrooms browned hard in a dry pan supply the first — they are one of the few vegetables with real free glutamate — and tomato purée cooked until it darkens, plus Marmite and soy sauce, supply the rest. Brown or green lentils rather than red, because red lentils collapse to purée and the filling needs texture to hold up under the mash.

Storage and Reheating

Refrigerated for 4 days. Freezes assembled and unbaked for 3 months.

Swaps and Variations

• An eighth of a teaspoon of garlic powder per clove is the stand-in usually given when you are out of fresh garlic; it will not brown the same way, and it burns easily, so add it with the liquid.
• Fresh herbs work in place of the dried thyme at roughly three times the quantity — a teaspoon of dried is about a tablespoon of fresh, chopped.

Serving Lentil Shepherd's Pie

• Buttered greens or peas
• A glass of Rioja
• Pickled red cabbage

Sides from the same cuisine on this site: Braised Red Cabbage, Bread Rolls, Buttered Peas.

What's in a Serving

Per serving, an approximate calculation from the ingredient list. Treat it as a rough guide: where a line offers a choice of foods, only one of them is counted. The calories include 4 g of alcohol a serving, which is not part of the protein, carbohydrate or fat. How the figures are worked out.

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