If winter threw a party and invited all the comfort foods, Shepherd’s Pie would be on the VIP list and Quinoa would be left shivering in the queue outside all night.
But what if Shepherd’s Pie wrapped Quinoa up in his big, fluffy, mashy coat and brought her along as his date? Dressed in a peppercorn and mushroom gravy dress, suddenly she’d be all voluptuous and soothing whilst still retaining her healthy, low-fat, high-protein body underneath. Stealth moves, baby!
Here’s how to get Quinoa past the bouncers at your place. Saucy splashes optional.
Quinoa & Mushroom Gravy Shepherd's Pie
Ingredients
- 1 cup quinoa I used red, rinsed
- 1 small brown onion peeled and chopped
- 2 cloves garlic crushed
- 400 g/14oz mushrooms sliced (I used swiss brown)
- 1 large carrot peeled and chopped into 1cm pieces
- 1 large handful green beans trimmed and chopped into 2cm long pieces
- Puff Pastry check ingredients to find one that is vegan
- 2-4 tbsp gravy powder I used Gravox
- 3-4 cups vegetable stock/broth
- 2 tbsp vegan margarine
- 5 potatoes peeled and chopped
Instructions
- In a large pot, sauté the mushrooms, onion and garlic in vegan margarine for 3 – 5 minutes, until onions are translucent.
- Reduce heat, add 3 cups vegetable stock and allow to simmer for 30 minutes (to intensify the mushroom flavour).
- In a second saucepan, bring several cups of water to the boil. Add potatoes and simmer until potatoes are soft. Drain water and mash potatoes, adding a little vegan margarine and salt & pepper to taste.
- Pre-heat oven to 190C.
- Add quinoa, carrots and beans to the mushroom pot and simmer for another 10 minutes, stirring often. If the mixture becomes too dry, add more vegetable stock.
- Add gravy powder to the quinoa mixture a little at a time and stir until it reaches desired consistency. Season with salt & lots of cracked pepper.
- Press pastry into a greased baking tin and fill with the quinoa mixture. Top with mashed potato and a spray of oil (optional).
- Bake for 20 minutes or until the potato peaks are a lovely golden colour.
Those potatoes look delicious! I love the golden color on top of them and I LOVE red quinoa…cook it weekly!!
Oh it’s great, isn’t it! I have it in salad too – so good!
This looks really delicious, I’ve never tried red quinoa before! I made a lentil shepherds pie the other day but it was a little watery and bland so I’ll definitely try your version!
Oh definitely give it a try, Becky! The quinoa happily soaks up all the juices. 🙂
Oh I also meant to say I LOVE your new layout of your blog! It’s really proffessional and reader friendly x
Oh thank you so much!! After so many headaches getting it working, comments like that make me beam! 🙂 xx
YUM! I’m craving mashed potatoes now… and (as we called it growing up) “Chinese Pie”!
Chinese??? haha. Mashed potatoes rock!
Oh how gorgeous Bex! Looks like some amazing comfort food right there!
It suuuuure was and I’ve already received another demand to make it again. 🙂
What a big comforting hunk of YUM! I’ll take 3 slices, please! 🙂
hehe, coming right up!
Beautiful comfort food!
Perfect for gloomy winter’s nights!
The best kind of comfort food! Is everything better with mashed potatoes??
haha, you betcha!
This looks so good! and I’m betting my family will love it too!! I gotta try it 🙂
Oh it’s a great one for the family – the men folk love it because it’s hearty and filling and the kids love it because they can splash sauce all over it (evidently I am still a kid ;-)). Enjoy! xx
Ooh,…Waw! What a wonderful creation! Georgous & tasty comfort food, all veganized! 🙂 Yummm!
It was so good I made it again yesterday to take to a family lunch! 🙂
Amazing recipe!! This looks soo delicious!
It’s so easy too, Britt! Nom.
i have been thinking about Shephard’s Pie, A LOT, lately…maybe as we move into Fall cozy foods are coming to mind?… Thanks so much for sharing this!
My pleasure and it’s definitely a sign that you need to make it, then! It’s a Fall winner for sure! 🙂
I didn’t even know there was a such thing as red quinoa until I read this recipe – so thank you for that! I love finding out about new food stuffs to try. Does it taste much different from the yellow/white quinoa?
Oh you need to try it then! I buy a great organic one from Oxfam. It’s a little nuttier-tasting than the white, I think. Delish! 🙂
yeahhh!!!….it looks delicius!! great job!!! thankx for the recipe!
My pleasure! Hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
That is spooky – last night I just pulled out the vegan shepherds pie recipe from Gwyneth Paltrow’s new book in order to make it tonight, but I think I like yours better!
haha, it’s a sign! 🙂 Hope you enjoy it as much as we do. x
This looks great.
I’ve been working with mushroom & tempeh, but this looks like a really good alternative I’ll need to try.
Consider using the potato water for your stock (mixed with the powder). It acts as a thickener for the filling, retains the nutritional value from the water, and, of course, uses less water. Also consider adding a bit of nutritional yeast either to the potatoes or the filling for B12 (and flavour).
How do you find the pastry working out? is it crisp/ flaky on the bottom?