Shepherd’s pie with turmeric mash

It always annoys me when people call a vegetarian shepherd’s pie a ‘shepherdless’ pie. It’s not like the meat equivalent has real shepherd’s in it. It’s stupid. Anyway, admittedly I haven’t made this pie for a while, but the weather’s being a wet bum-hole and I’m cold, so let’s mash and eat some potatoes.
This pie is easy to make but a bit more time consuming than I remember, so avoid making it after a stressful day at the office, like I did. Best to make it on a Sunday and eat the leftovers for lunch the rest of the week.
Oh and if you fancy watching a video of a cute owl getting stroked then click here. No reason, it’s just a bit lovely isn’t it. Enjoy!… I wish I had a pet owl.

Shepherd’s pie with turmeric mash
Serves 6 / Hands on time 1 hr / Total time 1 hr 20 mins / V ❄
You’ll need: A medium oven-proof dish around 22cm x 28cm
Filling
1 tsp rapeseed oil
1 white onion, finely chopped
500g Quorn mince,
2 medium carrots, peeled and diced
2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
¼ chilli flakes
200ml vegetarian red wine
500ml vegetable stock, I use Knorr
1 can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
3 handfuls of red lentils
1 tsp Marmite (optional)
Mash
800g white potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 tsp ground turmeric
4 tbs of semi-skimmed milk
knob of butter
Steamed vegetables and vegetarian gravy to serve

Method
1. Preheat an oven to 200°C/180°C fan/400F/gas mark 6.
2. Sweat the onions in the rapeseed oil for 5 mins until they start to soften (add a dash of water to help them steam). Add the garlic, chilli, carrots and the Quorn (refrigerated or frozen). Cook for a further 5 mins before adding the wine, stock, kidney beans, lentils and Marmite (optional). Bring to the boil and season with salt and pepper. Reduce the heat and cook for 45 mins, stirring occasionally until most of the liquid has absorbed.
3. Meanwhile, peel and chop the potatoes and boil them in salted water in a large saucepan for around 25 mins. Once soft, drain the potatoes and return to the pan but off the heat. Add a generous knob of butter, milk and start mashing with a masher. Once roughly mashed, add the turmeric along with generous pinch of salt and pepper and continue to mash. Add more butter and milk as required until you have a creamy yet firm mash. Put to one side.
4. Spoon the pie filling into a casserole dish and top generously with the mashed potato. Run a fork over the top of the mash to rough it up a bit and season with salt and pepper.
5. Cover loosely with foil and bake in the oven for 20 mins. Remove from the oven and put the grill on a medium to high heat. Remove the foil and grill the top of the pie for about 5 minutes to give the top a nice brown crunchy top (optional).
6. Serve with steamed seasonal vegetables and gravy.

If you’ve had a go at making any of my recipes, I’d love to hear from you. Follow me now @corrieheale and tag your recipe pictures using #corriesrabbitfood.