Curried Vegan Shepherd’s Pie

This vegan shepherd's pie recipe with curry-like spices is the ultimate healthy comfort food! With lentils, chickpeas, carrots, mushrooms, and a sweet potato top, it's a hearty main that's perfect on the holiday table or as a family-friendly meal. It's simple to make and it's ready in just over an hour!

For more holiday-worthy casseroles, also try our vegan green bean casserole or pretty sweet potato casserole with peppery pecan topping.

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Calling all comfort food lovers! As the temperatures drop, we naturally start craving cozy dishes and this vegan shepherd's pie is as delicious as it gets.

This plant-based casserole is jam-packed with lentils, chickpeas, and veggies cooked in curry-like spices so it's healthy, filling, and full of flavor. It's also ridiculously easy to make.

If you're planning a holiday dinner party, this is a great make-ahead meal that's suitable for the vegans and vegetarians around the table. It's a hearty dish so all you need to complete the meal is to serve it with some bread and a simple side salad. Voila, dinner is served.

Vegan shepherd's pie ingredients

Don't let the longish list of ingredients shy you away from making this cozy, comforting casserole. Most of the ingredients you're likely to have in your kitchen so you may not even need to head to the store.

Here's everything you'll need:

• Dried brown lentils – we use dried lentils, but you could also use canned lentils to skip a step.
• Sweet potatoes – for the fluffy mashed potato topping, with a sweet potato twist!
• Coconut milk – makes the mashed sweet potatoes rich and creamy.
• Onion, garlic, and ginger – this aromatic mix is sauteed in coconut oil and is the perfect complement to curry.
• Vegetables – we use a classic mix of carrots, celery, cremini mushrooms, and frozen peas.
• Spices – cayenne, garam masala, chili powder, cumin, and sea salt
• Tomato paste – adds rich tomato flavor to the vegetable mixture and sauce.
• Chickpeas – for more toothsome texture, and they're full of fiber and protein, too!

How to make this vegan shepherd's pie

This vegan lentil shepherd's pie is a healthy, hearty, and cozy meal for holidays or weeknights. It's simple to make, and it will fill your home with the most wonderful aromas. Here's how we make it:

1. To start, cook the lentils. Add them to a pot with water, cook them until soft, and then drain the excess water.
2. Then, boil the sweet potatoes in a pot with the coconut milk, water, and cayenne and cook until they're tender. Then, mash them with the liquid left in the pot and season them to taste.
3. Now make the vegetable mixture by sautéing the onion, garlic, ginger, and all the veggies (except the peas) in a pan until soft and starting to brown.
4. To the vegetable mixture, add the spices followed by the tomato paste. You want the tomato paste to caramelize a bit so cook it until it darkens and smells sweet. Once you've removed it from the heat, stir in the peas, chickpeas, and cooked lentils.
5. Now it's assembly time! In a casserole baking dish, layer the lentil vegetable mixture on the bottom, and top with the mashed sweet potatoes. Then, bake the pie until it's hot and bubbling at the edges. Once it comes out of the oven, we like to top it with some minced parsley and a few cracks of fresh pepper.

Full recipe instructions are in the recipe card below.

Vegan shepherd's pie variations

While we love this shepherd's pie recipe as-is, it's really flexible in terms of making substitutions to suit your tastes or to use what you have on hand. Here are a few easy swaps that come to mind:

• Frozen (or canned) corn might not be a classic ingredient but it works great and we always seem to have some in the cupboard or freezer.
• Don't like chickpeas or have some canned beans you'd rather use? Other beans like white beans, black beans, or kidney beans work as well. You could also simply use more lentils.
• Not a fan of sweet potatoes? Go the classic route with regular mashed potatoes using russet potatoes or yukon gold potatoes.
• For texture and more protein, add texturized vegetable protein (TVP) or finely chopped walnuts to the lentil mixture.
• Add fresh herbs like thyme or rosemary to the potatoes.

FAQS

What to serve with vegan shepherd's pie

This lentil shepherd's pie recipe will make enough to feed a small crowd so it's perfect as a vegetarian main for the holiday table at Thanksgiving or Christmas.

We also love it as a cozy, hearty meal on weeknights. It leaves us with lots of leftovers for quick lunches or to freeze for later.

Festive salads that taste great with this vegan shepherd's pie

• Late Autumn Shaved Brussels Sprout Salad
• Baby Kale Salad with Pomegranate Seeds and Spicy Candied Pecans
• Roasted Beet and Kale Salad with Maple Candied Walnuts

The ultimate vegan thanksgiving menu

Pair this lentil shepherd's pie with other festive vegan recipes to create the ultimate thanksgiving or holiday menu. Here are a few of our favorite options:

• A warm bowl of cozy celery soup or carrot soup with coconut and ginger
• A leafy green salad like our pomegranate salad with spinach, hazelnuts, and mint or kale apple salad
• Finish it off with something sweet like our chocolate vegan pumpkin pie

More vegan dinner recipes

• Creamy Vegan Spaghetti Squash Alfredo
• Loaded Vegan Butter Chicken
• One Pot Vegan Pasta with Spicy Sun-Dried Tomato Sauce
• Dreamy Vegan Cauliflower Alfredo Sauce