Meatless Monday: Easy (and budget-friendly) Vegan Shepherd’s Pie

This year has been a crazy, wonderful one for me. I moved, got married, went on an amazing Hawaiian honeymoon, and now my husband and I are expecting our first child (!).

It’s all so amazing – but it’s also taken a toll on our budget. Luckily, we love cooking – so we’ve started to get creative in the kitchen with budget-friendly ingredients and pantry staples.

We’ve also majorly cut down on takeout, started to pack lunches for work every day and cook most of our meals at home.

This Shepherd’s Pie was the result of searching the pantry and freezer for things we already had on hand, and it turned out to be super yummy! Bonus: This snowy weekend in Toronto provided the perfect backdrop for curling up on the couch with some comfort food. 

Ingredients

1/2 yellow onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp dry vegetable stock
1 cup Textured Vegetable Protein (you can get this at any bulk food store)
1 cup veggies (we used peas and corn that we had in the freezer)
2 to 3 potatoes, mashed
Rice breadcrumbs (optional)

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 F degrees.

This is a pretty easy meal to put together. Just boil and mash the potatoes however you like. We added some Earth Balance margarine, salt, pepper, garlic powder and onion powder). Set aside.

Put the Textured Vegetable Protein (TVP) in a bowl with the vegetable stock, and pour  1.5 cups of boiling water over top to soften it. Set aside.

In a pan, heat olive oil on medium heat and add onion and garlic for 5 minutes. Add TVP mixture and cook for another 5 minutes. Add vegetables and heat for another 5 minutes.

Grease a loaf pan with a thin layer of olive oil. Add TVP/veggie mixture and even out with a spatula. Add the mashed potatoes on top and sprinkle with breadcrumbs (optional).

Cook for 20 to 25 minutes until the top layer is slightly browned.

We served our Shepherd’s Pie with ketchup – a throwback to the way we both had it as kids.

Enjoy!

-Katharine Watts, associate web editor