This hearty, rich and savory meal is made solely of plants! It is basically a vegan version of shepherd’s pie and cottage pie. Complex flavor is developed with delicious ingredients such as garlic, onion, thyme, tamari, Worcestershire sauce, and red wine (vinegar).
The Mashed Cauli-tatoes recipe can be found here.
Gardener's Pie
Plant-based version of shepherd's pie or cottage pie
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon cooking oil such as canola
- 1 medium yellow onion, diced
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 pound mushrooms, sliced about 5-6 cups
- 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar or substitute red wine or grape juice, up to 1/4 cup
- 2 1/2 cups vegetable stock
- 10 ounces frozen mixed vegetables
- 1/2 cup red lentils
- 2 tablespoons reduced sodium tamari or soy sauce
- 2 teaspoons fresh thyme, minced
- 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
- 2 tablespoons corn starch or 1/4 cup flour
- 1 teaspoon salt or to taste
- 1 batch mashed cauli-tatoes https://guesswhoscooking.com/2019/11/18/mashed-cauli-tatoes/
Instructions
-
Heat oil in a Dutch oven or stock pot over medium-high heat.
-
Add onions and saute for 5 minutes or until they start to become translucent. Add garlic and cook for 30 seconds.
-
Add vinegar/juice to deglaze the pan, then add stock, mushrooms, mixed vegetables, lentils, tamari, thyme, and worcestershire sauce. Cook until lentils are tender, about 15 minutes.
-
Preheat broiler on high.
-
Mix corn starch with ¼ cup water to make a slurry. Add to pot and stir until liquid is thickened. Add 1-2 more tablespoons corn starch if necessary, or more stock or water if it's too thick. The sauce should be thicker than gravy. Add salt to taste.
-
If prepared in a stock pot, transfer the mixture to a large casserole dish. If using a Dutch oven, keep it in there. Place about ½ cup mashed cauli-tatoes at a time on top of the mixture with remaining cauli-tatoes. Use a spoon or spatula to smooth out the mash, covering the mixture below, and sealing off the edges.
-
Broil for 10-15 minutes or until lightly browned on top.
Recipe Notes
- Mashed Cauli-tatoes Recipe
- Red Wine: If using red wine instead of red wine vinegar, use 1/4 cup and decrease vegetable broth by 2 tablespoons.
- Flour: If using flour instead of corn starch, there is no need to make a slurry. Add the flour directly to the pan and stir. Use twice as much flour as corn starch.
- Simpler Version: Simply top the mashed cauli-tatoes with the vegetable mixture, sort of like mashed potatoes and gravy. This saves about 15 minutes or so.
- Ingredients like Worcestershire sauce and tamari can be left out if you don't have them, but they help build a more complex flavor.
- Vegan: make sure to use vegan Worcestershire sauce
- Gluten-free: Use tamari (usually gluten-free but check the label) or gluten-free soy sauce. Use corn starch, not flour, to thicken.
YESSSS!!! Kim made this for us when we visited a while back, and I still use it as an example of how she is truly a culinary wizard, because this is healthy and SO YUMMY. Can’t wait to try and make it myself!!!
Amazing. I could eat it every day.